How do the major parties rate on Medicare? We asked 5 experts

Medicare has been mentioned a lot this election campaign but we’ve seen relatively few substantial policy announcements from the major parties.

Voters want improvements to Medicare and the health system. More than 13% of respondents to The Conversation’s #SetTheAgenda poll^[1] said health was one of the issues having the greatest impact on their life right now. Cost of living pressures were also a key concern.

As one respondent said, candidates should be talking about “increasing Medicare rebates to reduce gap payments” as they compete for votes, while another saw improving “rural and regional access to high quality care” as the key issue.

So what have the major parties committed to? And is this enough? We asked five experts to analyse and grade the major parties’ Medicare policies – from A for top marks to F for a failed effort.

Here are their detailed responses:

Coalition

Labor

References

1. ^{^} poll (theconversation.com)