How do the major parties rate on Medicare? We asked 5 experts

Green Medicare sign — AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy

Jim Gillespie, University of Sydney, Lesley Russell, University of Sydney, Richard Norman, Curtin University, Rosemary V Calder, Victoria University, Stephen Duckett, The University of Melbourne

Authors

Jim Gillespie
Jim Gillespie is a Friend of The Conversation.

Associate Professor in Health Policy, Menzies Centre for Health Policy & Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney
Lesley Russell
Adjunct Associate Professor, Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of Sydney
Richard Norman
Associate Professor in Health Economics, Curtin University
Rosemary V Calder
Professor, Health Policy, Victoria University
Stephen Duckett
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice, The University of Melbourne

Disclosure statement

Jim Gillespie receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Lesley Russell worked as a policy advisor on health and related issues for the federal Australian Labor Party from 2002 to 2007.

Richard Norman receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council, and the Medical Research Future Fund.

Rosemary V Calder has received funding from the Australian government Department of Health. She has worked for both the Coalition and Labor governments, and was head of the Office for the Status of Women under the Howard government.

Stephen Duckett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Partners

University of Melbourne provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

Victoria University, University of Sydney, and Curtin University provide funding as members of The Conversation AU.

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Medicare has been mentioned a lot this election campaign but we’ve seen relatively few substantial policy announcements from the major parties.

Voters want improvements to Medicare and the health system. More than 13% of respondents to The Conversation’s #SetTheAgenda poll said health was one of the issues having the greatest impact on their life right now. Cost of living pressures were also a key concern.

As one respondent said, candidates should be talking about “increasing Medicare rebates to reduce gap payments” as they compete for votes, while another saw improving “rural and regional access to high quality care” as the key issue.

So what have the major parties committed to? And is this enough? We asked five experts to analyse and grade the major parties’ Medicare policies – from A for top marks to F for a failed effort.

Here are their detailed responses:

Coalition

Labor

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