Revealed: the areas where Australians are struggling to access free GP care

Data obtained exclusively by Guardian Australia shows the percentage of patients who did not have to pay any fee to see their GP in a given year and were entirely bulk billed. Bulk billing is when the full cost of a consultation is paid for by Medicare.

The data set also shows a separate figure of the total percentage of all GP services delivered in an electorate that were bulk billed. This includes the patients who always get care free as well as those whose consultations are occasionally free.

The rates of GP patients being fully bulk billed are low in affluent, metropolitan electorates such as Warringah and Wentworth in Sydney, as well as the electorate of Canberra. Experts say this likely represents the ability of wealthier communities to pay for visits.

The problem is particularly pronounced in the Tasmanian electorates of Clark and Franklin, in and near Hobart, where only about 37% of people had all of their GP appointments bulk billed in the 2021-22 financial year, well below the national average. That has dropped from 41% two years prior.

You can find bulk-billing data for your electorate in this map:

Jenkins had no choice but to pay for weekly visits on top of blood tests, bringing the total to $130 a week over eight weeks, until he was diagnosed with glandular fever.

Her husband was not able to access any bulk-billing GPs because there are none in the area.

A report from thinktank the Grattan Institute, published in December, found most GPs have steady profit margins, and that simply increasing Medicare rebates for GPs will not entice them to rural and remote areas or address patchy access to health care, nor help with coordination of care among different providers.

This type of model did exist nationally in the 1970s, emerging out of the battle for universal healthcare under the Whitlam government. The community health program involved GPs, allied and mental health professionals, and nurses, and it existed in every state and territory. But it was abolished by subsequent governments, and states were left to prop up community healthcare alone. Most absorbed community health services into the acute care system.

Di Natale said once established the community clinic will be a litmus test for how the federal government manages an increasingly ageing and chronically ill population, and responds to the health needs of rural, regional and disadvantaged populations.

Tasmania stands out as a particularly tough state to find affordable care. Maskell-Knight said the data shows overall there are 40 electorates throughout Australia where more than three-quarters of the population were bulk billed for all their GP visits in 2021-22, with many of these in the most populous states.

NSW is home to nine of the top 10 electorates for bulk billing. These include Blaxland, Chifley, Fowler and Werriwa, where more than 96% of patients always had their GP appointments bulk-billed.

Here you can search the data to see the rates for your area:

Guardian Australia requested bulk billing data from Services Australia by electorate, which was provided by the Department of Health and combined with census data for our analysis. You can download the original data here.