‘I can’t make doctors do stuff’: Mark Butler insists GPs will choose to bulk-bill all patients
The Minister for Health and Aged Care has batted away GPs’ arguments that tripled bulk-billing incentives for all patients will not mean a wholesale shift to universal bulk-billing.
Ahead of tomorrow’s election, Mark Butler has been warned that GPs are unlikely to embrace universal bulk-billing despite his pledge of $8.5 billion for higher bulk-billing incentives.
On Thursday, a radio host told Mr Butler that the government’s prediction of GPs bulk-billing 90% of consultations by 2030 had been “consistently, en masse, opposed by GPs”.
Mr Butler replied that he “talks to GPs regularly, including some of the big chains”.
