A variety of different problems led Australia to create its health care system. Perhaps the primary motivating factor was the perception by successive governments that while health care costs were increasing rapidly, they were doing so without sufficient accountability. Government's desire to achieve some control over the delivery of health care resulted in a system which has gained widespread support among Australians. It is a system from which the United States may have much to learn.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Australian health care was in a state of considerable turbulence. Successive governments tried to create a more equitable health insurance system, while also trying to control spiralling health care costs. The result seemed to emphasize cost cutting, with little regard for the quality of care provided.
Then, in 1984, Australia introduced a two tiered universal health care system called Medicare. Over the last several years, the system has managed to maintain Australia's health care expenses at 8 percent of the country's gross national product. Furthermore, Medicare has gained such widespread support among the Australian people that even the nation's Liberal Party (the Aussie equivalent of the Republican Party) has dropped its opposition to it.
Australian Medicare guarantees health care to every resident
through the country's well run public health system. The system is funded through an income tax of 1.25 percent (the "Medicare levy") as well as through general tax revenue. This provides a rebate of 85 percent of the scheduled "most common fee" for all doctors services. A national schedule of fees has also been established for various other services as well. Diagnostic services attract lower benefits and some services provided by professionals allied to medicine i.e., dental and optical services are not covered by Medicare at all.
Doctors do not have to stick to the sche...