'No one left behind': Labor pledges $8.5b for Medicare to deliver bulk-billed GP visits

Mr Albanese will announce on Sunday that his government will expand incentive payments to GPs if reelected to ensure nine in 10 visits nationally are bulk-billed under Medicare - meaning the patient does not pay a fee - by 2030.

"I want every Australian to know they only need their Medicare card, not their credit card, to receive the healthcare they need," the Prime Minister said.

"No Australian should have to check their bank balance to see if they can afford to see a doctor. That is not who we are."

The ACT has the lowest bulk billing rate in the country, with the latest official data showing just 54 per cent of GP visits in the territory are bulk-billed, compared with 78 per cent nationally.

The pre-election promise includes extending a tripled bulk billing incentive already applied to 11 million concession card holders and children aged under 16 to all Australians from November 1.

ACT Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith said the investment would be a "game changer" for Canberrans.

"At a time when households are under financial pressure, there are an increasing number of people unable to access a bulk-billed GP when they need to," she said.

"This investment will deliver more bulk-billed appointments in the ACT, lifting low bulk billing rates and providing more free healthcare to Canberrans."

Ms Stephen-Smith also said the investment would encourage more young doctors to consider a career in general practice, increasing the number of GPs per capita in the territory.

The government would also introduce an additional 12.5 per cent loading to reward GP practices that bulk bill every patient, and expand nursing scholarships and GP training places to deliver the workforce needed to make primary healthcare accessible.

Peak medical groups have said the cost of delivering healthcare in the ACT is high and that many GP practices need to charge patients gap fees to keep the lights on.

Mr Albanese will declare the pledge sets his government apart from the Coalition at an election that will be fought on the cost of living, with the biggest investment in Medicare since it was created more than 40 years ago.

"Labor built Medicare, we will protect it and improve it for all Australians," the Prime Minister said.

"This is a policy that lifts up our entire nation and ensures no one is held back, and no one is left behind."

The government will say the $8.5 billion investment will restore to the Medicare system the amount of funding lost over the six years the indexation of rebates was frozen, mostly under the Coalition.

Labor has reignited its so-called "Mediscare" campaign seen at the last three elections as the government pushes a narrative claiming that Australia's universal healthcare system is at risk if Opposition Leader Peter Dutton becomes Prime Minister.

Earlier this month, Labor was criticised over an attack ad that used 2014 footage to depict Mr Dutton as declaring that "Medicare is dead," after the clip was edited to remove contextual comments about the need to make Medicare sustainable.

Health Minister Mark Butler said when announcing the $8.5 billion pledge that Labor's message to voters was: "When it comes to Medicare, you'll be worse off under Dutton."

"Australia's doctors voted Peter Dutton the worst health minister in Medicare history for a reason," Mr Butler said, referring to a 2015 poll by Australian Doctor magazine.

Mr Dutton promised in his pre-campaign speech in Melbourne last month to guarantee "the growing funding of Medicare" if he is elected.

The Albanese government has blamed Mr Dutton for the six-year Medicare rebate freeze, saying he implemented the measure as health minister in the Abbott government.

In fact, the Medicare rebate freeze was initiated by former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard's government in what was supposed to be a temporary measure in 2013, then continued and extended by the Coalition after it won the November 2013 election.

The government has also reminded voters that Mr Dutton was the health minister who proposed that patients fork out a $7 "co-payment" at every GP visit - a measure that was abandoned after public backlash.

The Coalition has responded to attacks on its record on Medicare by launching a Liberal Party "health facts" website, pointing to higher bulk billing rates when it was last in government.

Bulk billing rates reflect the percentage of GP visits that are bulk-billed, not the proportion of patients who visit the doctor without paying a fee.

As Australia's population has grown older and sicker, the number of patients with chronic illnesses who require many GP visits per year has increased.

It is unclear how many of the 18 million additional bulk-billed GP visits the Labor policy is designed to deliver by 2030, or how many of the 4800 practices nationally forecast to be in a better financial position if they bulk bill, would be divided in each state and territory.

The government is expected to release further details showing a state and territory breakdown of the projected increase to bulk-billed visits under the plan in the coming week.