After 40 years, is Medicare living up to its promise?

Medicare is 40 years old this month, and the little green card is now a ubiquitous presence in our wallets and on our phones. It has become a point of pride for Australians - especially those of us who have ventured over to the United States. But that wasn’t always the case. 

The birth of Medicare was fraught; with its first iteration, Medibank, finding a very controversial reception by the public when it was first introduced by Gough Whitlam.

In this episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt speaks with Kees Van Gool, a professor of health systems and policy at the University of Sydney, about how it all came together, and what still needs to be improved. 

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