Medicare (Australia)

Medicare (Australia)

Medicare is Australia's publicly funded universal health care system, operated by the government authority Medicare Australia. Medicare provides affordable primary health care treatment for all Australian citizens and for permanent residents except for those on Norfolk Island. Residents with a Medicare card can receive subsidised treatment from medical practitioners, nurse practitioners and allied health professionals who have been issued a Medicare provider number, and can also access fully subsidised ("free") treatment in public hospitals. The program was introduced by the Whitlam Labor government in 1975 as Medibank, and was supplemented by a government-owned private health insurance fund (Medibank Private) in 1976. Medibank was renamed Medicare in 1984.

Visitors from countries having reciprocal arrangements with Australia have limited access to Medicare, as detailed below. The Australian Government has signed Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA) with the governments of the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Slovenia, Malta, Italy, Republic of Ireland and New Zealand.

Since 1999, the public health scheme has been supplemented by a Private Health Insurance Rebate, where the government funds at least 30% of any private health insurance premium covering people eligible for Medicare. Including these rebates, Medicare is the major component of the total Commonwealth health budget, taking up about 43% of the total. The program is estimated to cost $18.3 billion in 2007–08. In 2009 before means testing was introduced, the private health insurance rebate was estimated to cost $4 billion, around 20% of the total budget. The overall figure is projected to rise by almost 4% annually in real terms over the next few years.