INDEPENDENT candidate for Lyne Jeremy Miller says he is “shocked but not surprised” at a January report revealing no bulk billing medical centres in the Lyne electorate.

On 13 January 2025, Cleanbill released its third annual “Blue Report”, providing nationwide and state-by-state insights into GP billing arrangements across multiple years.

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The report’s findings focus on the electorates with the largest increases and decreases in bulk billing and out-of-pocket costs since the start of 2023, as well as those which no longer have any bulk billing clinics.

Lyne was listed as one of ten federal electorates where there are no bulk billing medical centres.

“While some electorates have gained bulk billing clinics since 2023, the vast majority (86.7 percent) lost them,” the report states.

“And there were significant drops in bulk billing in some electorates over the course of just the last two years, with 15 electorates (state and federal) now containing no available, bulk billing GP clinics.

“The story is much the same with out-of-pocket costs: some electorates saw decreases, but the vast majority of electorates showed increases in out-of-pocket costs, some by as much as 25 percent of the average fee at the start of 2023.

“With bulk billing rates and out-of-pocket costs varying so greatly from electorate to electorate, it’s critically important that Australians have easy access to availability and pricing information for every clinic around them.”

Jeremy Miller, who will run as an independent in the upcoming federal election, said locals across Lyne were raising the issue regularly.

“We’re in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and local people can’t access the bulk-billed healthcare that they need.

“It should be a right for all of us to have affordable access to see a doctor that we know.

“People are delaying going to the doctor because they can’t afford it and that’s a real risk to their health.”

If elected, Mr Miller pledged to push for “immediate action and real solutions”.

“People need relief now, not more talk from politicians,” he said.

“We have a pilot program in our area that is getting doctors and nurses to stay in our community long term.

“That’s not the whole solution, but it’s a start.

“These are the practical, low-cost solutions that we need.

“I’ll fight for funding to expand that program through our region.“