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 5 Regression model for the frequency of consultation

Model	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized coefficients	t-value	Significance
	B	Std Error	Beta
Constant	4.296	0.120		35.777	0.000
Bulk-billing rate squared	2.767	0.204	0.619	13.539	0.000
Bulk-billing rate squared * ARIA	-0.192	0.025	-0.248	-7.621	0.000
Propⁿ popⁿ born NESB country	-4.154	1.841	-0.369	-2.256	0.026
Propⁿ popⁿ born NESB country * Bulk-billing rate squared	8.108	2.091	0.675	3.878	0.000

Notes: ARIA = population weighted Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia
NESB = Non-English Speaking Background
Dependent variable = number of consults per Standardised Whole Patient Equivalent (SWPE – see Table 1)