New Medicare developmental check for three-year-olds starts today

From today, 1 November 2026, Australian three-year-olds can access a Medicare-subsidised developmental health check through their GP as part of the federal Thriving Kids program. The check is available once per child per lifetime and is delivered by a GP who assesses development, behaviour, relationships, toileting, sleep and lifestyle, comparing findings against typical milestones for a three-year-old.

If your child is three, or turning three in the coming months, this is the most relevant thing happening in children’s health today. And if you have a child already navigating developmental supports or waiting for specialist assessment, it is worth understanding both what the check offers and where its current limits sit.

What the check is and why it exists

The Thriving Kids program is part of a broader federal effort to catch developmental concerns early — early enough to access support before school, and in some cases before the NDIS becomes the primary pathway. The RACGP has noted that the check arrives more than a decade after a Medicare check for four-year-olds was axed in 2015, leaving a gap in routine surveillance between the infant health checks and school entry.

More than one in five three-year-olds have at least one developmental vulnerability, and in some communities the proportion approaches two in five, according to RACGP figures cited in the ABC’s coverage. These are not rare edge cases — they are children in ordinary GP waiting rooms who may be reaching school age without the support they need.

The check is not a diagnostic test. It is a structured screening conversation: the GP goes through the child’s medical history, current behaviour and social patterns, and maps them against what is typical for the age. The point is not to diagnose — it is to identify children who need a closer look before they go to school, and to link them with the right services before the window for early intervention narrows.

Children who are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and already eligible for a health check under the Medicare Benefits Schedule are still eligible for those checks; the 3yo developmental check does not replace or exclude them.

Both-and: the promise and the current gaps

The case for the program is clear. Tim Jones from the RACGP, who helped design the check, said it is specifically aimed at identifying children who lack an obvious disability but need more support from the health system than they are currently getting — children who might otherwise reach school having had no early intervention. The identification logic is sound: earlier is better for most developmental conditions, and age three is an age when GP contact is still routine for most Australian families.

The implementation gaps are worth naming clearly because they matter to whether the check achieves what it promises.

Independent paediatrician and MP Monique Ryan has raised concerns about the GP-only delivery model. Experts who contributed to program design recommended that nurses and allied health professionals also deliver the check to extend reach. The government restricted it to GPs. In areas already experiencing GP shortages — rural and remote communities, outer suburban growth corridors, lower-income urban areas — that restriction directly affects whether families can access the check at all, and in a reasonable timeframe.

Bulk billing is not guaranteed. The check is Medicare-rebatable, but whether a practice bulk bills it is the practice’s decision. In areas with already low bulk-billing rates, families may face an out-of-pocket gap.

Niroshini Kennedy from the RACP’s Paediatrics and Child Health Division described the check as “a gateway to support” — and emphasised that identification is only the first step. The second step — timely intervention — depends entirely on what services are available locally. Many of the state and territory-level targeted supports under the Thriving Kids program are not expected until January 2028. A child identified in November 2026 may wait over a year for the services that should follow.

That gap between identification and intervention is not a reason to avoid the check. It is a reason to plan. A documented GP assessment opens the referral pathway and creates a record that supports specialist and NDIS applications. Waiting to seek that documentation until services are needed delays everything downstream.

2 cents

If your child is three, booking the developmental check with your GP is worth doing. It takes one appointment, it is Medicare-subsidised, and it creates a formal clinical record of your child’s developmental status at age three — which is a useful document regardless of outcome.

Call the practice first to confirm they are offering the check, whether it is bulk billed, and how to book. The check is available once per lifetime, per child, so there is no advantage to waiting.

If a concern is identified, ask your GP to document it clearly, ask what referrals are available locally, and ask whether a referral now — even to a waiting list — is appropriate. For developmental concerns, a place on a waiting list started in late 2026 is almost always better than a place started in 2027 or 2028.

If your child has already had developmental concerns noted and you are navigating the NDIS or specialist pathway, the check provides additional GP-level documentation that can support those applications.

Verdict: yes — a genuinely new service worth using, with realistic expectations about what follows identification.

---

Sources cited

1. What to know about the new health check for 3yo kids — ABC Health, 1 November 2026
2. Guidelines for preventive activities in general practice (Red Book) — RACGP
3. RACP Paediatrics and Child Health Division