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 4 Divisions in which an increase in the bulk-billing rate will decrease the number of people consulting an FFS GP

Geographic Accessibility	Bulk-billing rate	Index of disadvantage†	GP density‡	WPEs per head of population¶
Accessible*
1. 230	59%	6.8	0.96	0.82
2. 412	73%	4.7	1.19	0.93
3. 413	81%	4.5	1.06	0.85
4. 507	69%	8.0	1.37	0.90
5. 609	47%	5.3	0.89	0.80
Moderately Accessible*
6. 231	56%	7.2	0.90	0.78
7. 411	51%	5.6	0.96	0.79
8. 509	21%	7.7	1.26	0.84
9. 511	69%	7.1	0.84	0.86
10. 801	62%	5.8	1.07	0.67
Remote*
11. 241	76%	9.1	0.69	0.76
12. 416	64%	7.3	0.54	0.65
13. 417	64%	7.9	0.73	0.71
14. 512	72%	7.8	0.90	0.74
15. 611	59%	5.3	1.01	0.71
16. 612	58%	7.0	0.78	0.63
Very Remote*
17. 233	93%	8.9	0.71	0.70
18. 415	57%	6.8	0.65	0.50
19. 610	93%	8.0	1.06	0.38
20. 614	49%	4.8	0.79	0.61
21. 802	65%	6.8	0.89	0.51

Notes: * Categories based on the following ARIA values: highly accessible = 0 – 1.84, accessible = >1.84 – 3.51, moderately accessible = >3.51 – 5.80, remote = >5,80 – 9.08, very remote = <9.02 – 12. Source: Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA), available at http://www.health.gov.au/ari/aria.htm Accessed 8th January 2002.
† Higher values indicate higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantage
‡ Vocationally registered and other GPs per 1,000 head of population
¶ WPE = whole patient equivalent (see Table 1)