Privatising health: the demise of MEDICARE?

Abstract

Health policy was an integral component of the postwar welfare state, which represented a nationally based class compromise providing concessions in the form of income support and service provision outside the ambit of the market. In Australia, development of a universal health system was delayed until the introduction of Medibank, and subsequently Medicare. Since its inception, Medicare has been subjected to retrenchment pressures that have dominated welfare state developments since the mid 1970s. This paper traces developments in the Australian health system, revealing that the major trends, privatisation and the transfer of responsibility from the collective to the private sphere, represent a movement towards a more residual system that threatens the Medicare goal of equitable access to quality medical treatment.

Welfare State Politics in Privatization of Delivery

“…In provision, there is also a difference between right and left. Although Howard’s Conservative federal government had supported private sector utilization and has promoted the privatization of “problem” public hospitals (Cook, 2006), the ALP has opposed privatization of public hospitals (ALP, 2007).…”

``Worried all the time'': distress and the circumstances of everyday life among immigrant Australians with type 2 Diabetes

“…All had Australian citizenship and so were entitled to basic health care, including subsidized general medical care under Medicare and subsidized medication through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. 39,40 All had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at least 5 years earlier, were taking oral medication or using insulin, and had no directly associated complications of diabetes, such as nephropathy, retinopathy or microvascular disease. Six (two Greek, two Indian, one Chinese and one Samoan) participants reported that they had been diagnosed with depression and had been prescribed antidepressants; two respondents were taking anti-depressants at time of interview.…”