Private finance publicly subsidized: The case of Australian health insurance

Abstract

Australia's Medicare is a universal, publicly funded comprehensive insurance scheme that provides all its citizens with free treatment in public hospitals, and subsidizes out-of-hospital medical services and pharmaceuticals. Yet alongside this public insurance there exists a strong private health insurance sector that covers private in-hospital treatment or general (largely dental and other) ancillary services. Policy initiatives implemented since 1997 have provided both incentives and penalties to encourage the uptake of private insurance. The proportion of the population with insurance for hospital treatment grew from around 33% in December 1996 to a high of 45% in 2000; it then declined slightly until 2007 and has increased since then to 47% in December 2015 (APRA, 2016). Consequently, significant public funds have been directed to support the private health insurance industry and, by extension, the private health care sector. Current policies reflect the ambiguities of the electoral popularity of Medicare alongside the push to restrain public spending.