>Anyway, to get national healthcare in Australia in 1984 took the desire of the
>working class and action by the left in the Labor Party in opposition to all
>the usual conservatives, including a substantial portion of the doctors' union
>aka the Australian Medical Association. Of course, the Labor Party
>had to hold
>government then to get the legislation passed. And this is NOT to
>say that the
>Australian Labor Party is always on the side of working class interests.
National healthcare (Medibank) was actually first introduced by the Whitlam Labor government in 1975.
See here for a bit more history:
http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/SP/medicare.htm
After the Witlam Government was sacked by the Governor General, the new conservative (under PM Fraser) government tried to wind back Medibank in 1976, which provoked a national strike, the last national strike in Australia's history.
In 1984 the next Labor government reinstated much of the original Medibank scheme under a new name, Medicare. But the Howard Liberal government has spent the last 10 years again trying to undermine and weaken the national health insurance system. Including spending billions of dollars subsidising private health insurance for those who can afford it. So that effectively Australia has a two tiered national health insurance system, one for the poor and one for the better-off. Both are subsidised heavily.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas