Medicare

Medicare is Australia’s universal health care system introduced in 1984 to provide eligible Australian residents with affordable, accessible and high-quality health care.

Medicare was established based on the understanding that all Australians should contribute to the cost of health care according to their ability to pay. It is financed through progressive income tax and an income-related Medicare levy.

Medicare provides access to:

free treatment as a public (Medicare) patient in a public hospital, and
free or subsidised treatment by medical practitioners including general practitioners, specialists, participating optometrists or dentists (for specified services only)

The Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) is responsible for the policy development of Medicare and the Medicare Benefits Schedule. Medicare Australia is responsible for:

ensuring Medicare benefits are paid to eligible health care consumers for services provided by eligible medical practitioners, and
assessing and paying Medicare benefits for a range of medical services, whether provided in or out of hospital, based on a schedule of fees determined by DoHA in consultation with professional bodies.

Medicare Australia is also involved in detecting and preventing fraud and abuse of the Medicare system and registering and recording details of medical practitioners including:

those eligible to have Medicare benefits paid for their services, or
those not entitled to have Medicare benefits paid for their services but who are able to raise valid referrals or requests for specialist services for Medicare benefit purposes.

As of 30 June 2005 there were over 20.5 million people registered for Medicare benefits and over 236 million services were processed in the July 2004-June 2005 period.

Elements of Medicare are also provided online. These include:

Last updated: 17 April, 2008