Politics: Health Of A Nation: Medicare.

‘Both sides of politics are claiming to have the better plan to make visiting a doctor more affordable.’ – ABC News Online, September 7^th 2004-09-08

Yes, of course they are.

If there’s one guaranteed way to score votes across the board – from Mr. Cash Money to Mr. Abject Squalor – it’s to create a popular health care policy. In case anyone wasn’t aware, everyone will need health care at some point, because everyone will eventually get sick. Health care is one of the few universal issues.

Unfortunately for the average punter, the health care issue is largely obscured by hardcore number crunching and back-room shenanigans. Everybody – from the Australian Medical Association (AMA) to the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) – wants in on the health care action. Both Labor and Liberal parties tend to hide their real policies behind numeric smokescreens – quoting numbers and adding things up – instead of addressing the real question most people have: When I get sick, am I going to get taken care of?

That’s the bloody issue right there. And both parties are supposedly keen on making sure the answer is a hearty ‘yes.’ Mark Latham has pledged $3.4 billion dollars to the health care system. John Howard is offering up $1.8 billion. The majority of this cash – under both parties – will go towards offering incentives for doctors to bulk bill, which is a good thing. It means that you when you see a doctor, you don’t have to give him money. Both parties claim to want to protect Medicare.

What exactly is Medicare? It was brought in by that cheeky genius Gough Whitlam back in 1975, and it was called Medibank. It replaced the previous system of voluntary health insurance, which meant that those who didn’t take up the insurance were fairly thoroughly fucked when they got sick. Medibank meant that every citizen would be afforded free (or very cheap) health care, regardless of socio-economic standing. When Whitlam was viciously booted out of office, the Liberal PM Malcolm Fraser cut Medibank benefits to everyone except pensioners and those who were deemed – arbitrarily – to be ‘socially disadvantaged.’ It wasn’t until the Hawke-led Labor government took office in ’84 that Medibank/Medicare returned in full force.

Now, 30 years later, a large proportion of Australia’s cash – 1.5% of taxable income – goes towards Medicare. And with good reason; despite the mistreatment of nurses and perpetual health care cuts on a state level, Australia has one of the most impressive health care systems in the world.

Which party will really protect this health care system? Historically, you’ve got to go with Labor. Whenever Medicare has been advanced, you can bet that the Labor party were responsible. The Liberals may have recently introduced the Medicare ‘safety nets,’ but in doing so they also deliberately rolled back the effectiveness of Medicare. In John Howard’s bourgeois fantasies, every single person in Australia gets expensive private health insurance (in reality, around 45% of Australians are covered).

Mark Latham may not have the genuine working class ethics of his mentor Whitlam, but at least he has a basic respect for the importance of Medicare. And the numbers he’s claiming he’ll hand over to the health care system indicate he’ll deliver a far healthier – both economically and medically – society than Howard will.

(Originally published in The Brag in the Fear & Loathing column. Later regretted due to not addressing the flaws of Latham's Medicare Gold just because I wanted a Labor win).