There is something deeply uncomfortable about celebrating the fact that GP bulk-billing rates in some of my local communities has reached 95%.

Why do they continue to experience some of the poorest health outcomes in Australia.

Affordable access to general practice matters. No doctor would argue otherwise.

But if political attention remains fixed on achieving a particular percentage of ‘free’ GP visits while Medicare rebates fail to adequately recognise prevention, chronic disease, multimorbidity and complex care, we should not be surprised when health outcomes deteriorate and health expenditure continues to rise.