this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025
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I know Australia has public healthcare, but is it literally called "Medicare"?
Yes, but unlike the American Medicare, ours is universal healthcare.
Yes it is. The first version introduced in the 70s under Whitlam was called Medibank but the Fraser government fucked that up. So the Hawke government reintroduced universal health care as Medicare in the 80s and Medibank persisted as a weird government owned private health insurer which Abbott privatized.
oh, yes its literally called Medicare. Since the mid 1980s
The Aussie system was modelled on the Canadian system at the time. It works well as there is somewhere that people can go and get free medical treatment even if there often is a long wait time.
Yep. medicare.gov.au Aussies all have a Medicare card which we show at medical appointments to handle the billing. Not everything is free but a lot is covered. I just had an ultrasound for a hernia and it didn't directly cost me anything.
Yeah it is.
I just had a quick look because I thought the Australian term would pre-date the american one but it doesn't aparently we copied it from you.
It should've been Medicaus or mediroo or something.
I'm a little surprised. Wow. But it does seem to be older. 41 years according to wikipedia. Looks like it was the yanks who copied it ;)