While it wasn’t his idea, Medicare helped make the mythos of Bob Hawke

While it wasn’t his idea, Medicare helped make the mythos of Bob Hawke

It was the big-picture reform that defined the Labor prime minister Bob Hawke and infuriated his opponents with its radical promise of a fairer, healthier society. Medicare, Australia’s taxpayer-funded system of universal health insurance, established in 1984, has long presented as a paradox. It’s a political winner and a political target. A government-run scheme in an era of marketisation. A constant that has been constantly debated. Pledges to…