Restoring affordable access to specialist care in Australia
03.02.2026 - 08:26
In this report, Mandala and Private Healthcare Australia (PHA) studied the affordability of specialist care in Australia. We find that specialist fees are rising, exacerbating cost-of-living pressures on consumers and worsening the affordability of healthcare. We propose a targeted package of measures to improve consumers' ability to access high-quality care, of their choosing, at fair and transparent costs.
Many Australians are not receiving the healthcare they need. About 900,000 Australians over the age of 15 delayed or avoided seeing a specialist because of cost in 2024. This trend is worsening and should it continue, over 1.2 million people will delay or avoid seeking specialist care by 2030.
Even though GP visits are up by 4% compared to before the pandemic (FY19), there have been 8% fewer initial specialist consults.
Without change, many consumers will be facing very expensive out-of-pocket costs when they need to see a specialist. At present growth rates, consumers will collectively find themselves paying $1.7 billion in out-of-pocket costs by 2030.
Consumer survey data from RedBridge provides more insight into the difficulties of accessing affordable specialist care. 61% of rural Australians are unable to get timely appointments with specialists. 1 in 2 consumers are stressed about medical costs. Over 1 in 2 consumers visiting specialists receive unexpected bills and 29% are charged fees of ‘booking’ and ‘admin’, which may be illegal.
We propose a targeted package of measures to ease price inflation, improve transparency, and enable choice. They include:
- Upgrading Medical Costs Finder will give consumers much more transparent information to make choices about their care. It would also support their navigation through the referral process from their GP to specialists
- Alleviating specific shortages in regional Australia with overseas-trained doctors in priority specialities would help close the most severe supply gaps
- Enabling medical professionals to work at the top of their scope of practice would improve workforce capacity
- Strengthening consumer protections to stop surprise billing and hidden costs
Read the full report here.
Read our latest posts
The Stagnant Nation: Lifting Australia’s Dynamism
Australians are going backwards on real wages and income. Real wage growth has fallen from 0.6 per cent in the 2000s to -0.7 per cent today, the slowest rate since the 1990s recession. Weak productivity growth is a key driver. Productivity growth has dropped from 2.2 per cent in the 1990s to just 0.1 per cent today. The Productivity Commission has pointed to declining economic dynamism as one cause for weak growth, with fewer businesses starting, growing and competing. We confirm declining economic dynamism across five key dimensions and estimate that reversing this decline seen since the mid-2000s could see a GDP uplift of $101 billion per year over the next decade. Our analysis finds that regulation could account for around 20 per cent of declining dynamism. Reducing regulatory burden to late-2000s levels could see GDP uplift of at least $20 billion per year over the next ten years.
7 Oct, 2026
Demonstrating the economic benefits of Airwallex in Australia
Mandala's latest research, commissioned by Airwallex, quantifies the direct and indirect economic benefits of Airwallex in Australia. Airwallex supported $4.6 billion in economic benefits in 2025, a figure roughly equivalent to 2 per cent of the Australian tech sector's contribution to GDP. Of this, $2.5 billion flows directly to platform businesses through productivity gains, new market access and cost savings, with the remainder reaching the broader economy as those benefits move through customers' supply chains. Airwallex supports 29,000 jobs across the Australian economy, and a quarter of economic benefits flow to regional, rural and remote areas. Small and medium businesses capture the largest share of any business segment on the platform, $2.1 billion annually, or $200,000 in economic benefits for the average SMB each year.
16 Sep, 2026
Power to the people
Mandala’s latest research examines how Greater Manchester turned devolved power into economic growth, why it worked, and what it could mean if similar powers were extended across England. Since devolution began in 2009, Greater Manchester’s economy has grown by nearly 45%, outperforming both the rest of England and the UK as a whole. Greater control over funding and policy has enabled the Mayor and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to coordinate investment in transport, housing, skills and economic development around local priorities. This has supported a 41% increase in bus journeys, recycled £300m of government capital into around £1bn of housing investment, delivering 11,000 dwellings, and increased employment in key sectors by over a quarter, compared with 14% across England. Integrating health and social care has also improved life expectancy, with the largest gains in self-reported health in the least healthy neighbourhoods. If local and combined authorities in England had these powers and replicated Manchester, we estimate an annual boost to the economy of up to £80bn, over 93,000 new homes, and £3.1bn in additional economic activity from improved life expectancy.
7 Sep, 2026
The Hidden Economy: Addressing Australia’s Domestic Work and Care Divide
Mandala’s research, in partnership with DoorDash Australia, examines the scale and distribution of Australia's unpaid household labour, the real costs it imposes on individuals and the economy, and the role that emerging technologies and policy reform could play in reducing and more equitably sharing that burden.
6 Sep, 2026