Medicare is Australia’s universal health care system and helps Australians with the cost of their health care. Medicare was established 38 years ago on February 1st 1984 and since then much has changed about Australia, the world and healthcare.

To mark the 38th anniversary of this fundamental pillar of the Australian healthcare system, for February 2022 we are asked Australia’s Health Panel what they thought of Medicare - what is working, what needs improving and how valuable they believe it is in the year 2022.

And we found that Australian consumers generally believe that Medicare is highly valuable to both Australia at large and to them as individuals.

They specifically believe that Medicare works well in making critical healthcare services universal, accessible and affordable to all Australians, especially emergency or urgent care. However they also believe that work needs to be done to not only ensure that these services are kept universal, accessible and affordable; but to expand the scope of Medicare coverage to allow Australians to access other critically important health care services that are currently out of reach to many.

The results of this research will be used to inform our advocacy on Medicare, health care accessibility and health care costs to ensure consumer needs are adequately addressed. The Consumers Health Forum of Australia would like to thank all panellists for giving up their time to participate in this survey. Any questions about this survey and its findings can be directed to info@chf.org.au.