Subject to that caveat, I have identified five interesting findings from today’s data drop.

 Subject to that caveat, I have identified five interesting findings from today’s data drop.

1. Where you live matters …

An initial examination of the data shows that about 700,000 Australians who were receiving all bulk-billed GP services no longer are.

But the numbers differ considerably between states and within the larger states.

New South Wales, Victoria and the Northern Territory have the highest proportion of people who received all bulk-billed GP services. The two largest states did not experience any substantial reduction in this proportion between 2019-20 and 2021-22 and about half of the electorates in these states actually saw an increase in the proportion of people who received all bulk-billed GP services.

The remaining three mainland states have a rate lower than the national average and saw a decline in the rate between 2019-20 and 2021-22. Of the 55 electorates across these states, only four did not see the rate decline.

Tasmania, where the proportion of people who received all bulk-billed GP services was already low compared with the national average, saw a further decline in four out of five electorates. The ACT, with the lowest such rate in the country, experienced a further marginal decline.