Strengthening Medicare: Will increasing the bulk-billing rate and supply of general practitioners increase access to Medicare-funded general practitioner services and does rurality matter?

Table 3 Regression model for decision to consult

Model	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized coefficients	t-value	Significance
	B	Std Error	Beta
Constant	0.497	0.039	12.897	0.000
GP density	0.234	0.020	0.559	11.717	0.000
Index of disadvantage	0.018	0.003	0.299	6.458	0.000
Bulk-billing rate	0.127	0.032	0.177	3.977	0.000
ARIA	-0.010	0.006	-0.205	-1.812	0.073
ARIA * GP density * Bulk-billing rate	-0.037	0.008	-0.444	-4.308	0.000

Notes: ARIA = population weighted Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia
Higher index of disadvantage = higher level of socioeconomic disadvantage
Dependent variable = number of Whole Patient Equivalents (WPEs) per head of population (see Table 1)