Patients are likely to be slugged more for doctor visits from November, with the country's peak medical body recommending an increase in fees for standard consultations.

Key points: AMA recommends GPs increase fees for standard consult by $2 to $78

AMA recommends GPs increase fees for standard consult by $2 to $78 Freeze on Medicare rebate until 2020 "is costing doctors, putting pressure on bulk-billing"

Freeze on Medicare rebate until 2020 "is costing doctors, putting pressure on bulk-billing" Health Minister Susan Ley says bulk-billing rates have "never been higher"

Australian Medical Association vice-president Stephen Parnis said the body would recommend doctors raise the cost to $78 for a standard visit under 20 minutes, a $2 increase that will not be accounted for by the Medicare rebate.

The Federal Government has frozen the Medicare rebate at $37.05, and it is set to stay the same until June 30, 2020.

Dr Parnis said the freeze was putting pressure on practices that continued to bulk-bill, and called for the Government to reinstate the indexation of the Medicare rebate to inflation.

"Already there is significant damage being done to the ability of practices to continue to provide that quality medical care," he said.

"Every day that freeze remains in place is another day that puts quality medical care firmly and more succinctly out of the reach."

He warned some patients may put off going to see a doctor or paying for medical care as a result of the cost increase.

Bulk-billing rate 'never been higher'

But Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley said the only figure that mattered was the bulk-billing rate, which she said was drawn from Medicare data.

Sorry, this video has expired AMA Victoria President Dr Lorraine Baker explains why a visit to the doctor could be more expensive.

"Other figures that swirl around from time to time may be in the interests of those making the arguments, but what I focus on is the bulk-billing rate, and it has never been higher," she said.

"It [the bulk-billing rate] is, for GPs, 81.5 per cent of all consultations in Australia last year, at the last point of time where they were measured."

Ms Ley said the AMA may recommend GPs increase fees, but it would depend on the business model they employed.

"Remember, in Australia, the Government does not employ the doctors," she said.

"We are not the National Health Service in Britain. We don't set fees for doctors, we're not the Canadian Government that actually introduced price controls for doctors.

"We respect and we value that doctors are small businesses and they have scope to set their fees according to their wishes, their business model and their patient cohort."

In 2013 the then-Labor government announced MBS fees, usually indexed on November 1 each year, would be instead realigned with the financial year and indexed on July 1, effectively freezing the rebate for eight months to save an estimated $664 million over four years.

The Coalition has continued to extend the freeze since then, with the latest being announced at the May federal budget.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declared on the eve of the federal election the latest extension would "absolutely" not result in patients paying more.