The Triumph Of Pragmatism:Medicare As A Political Tool Used By Both Labor And Liberal For Electoral Gains

Medicare as a publicly funded universal health insurance scheme is the most significant part of Australia’s health system. Ever since the Whitlam government’s introduction of Medibank in the early1970s, this universal health insurance scheme has undergone various changes under different generations of federal governments. Labor governments and Liberal governments have adopted different policies.Labor introduced this universal health insurance scheme and has always left the public with the impression that it has been working hard to safeguard Medicare, which seems to be consistent with its traditional political stance characterized by advocacy for equality for all, preference for public sector over private sector and belief in government’s interference in the market. However, an examination of Labor’s Medicare-related policies shows that Labor is not consistent in its attitude towards Medicare.Liberal on the other hand seems to be the natural enemy of Medicare as the nature of Medicare goes against Liberal’s traditional political stance characterized by encouraging individualism and freedom of choice, but this paper has found that under Liberal governments there have been cases of their taking pro-Medicare measures.To find out why such inconsistencies exist and form a better understanding of the relevance of Medicare to electoral politics, this paper starts from studying ideology’s relevance to each party’s health policy. Based on the "political market" theory, this paper examines the ideological contrast between actual Medicare policy implementation and each party’s proclaimed health policy adoption, the relevance of Medicare in past elections and the importance attached to it by subsequently elected governments in their policy-making, and finds that winning electoral success or securing office is the real motivation for both parties in their health policy making and delivery.In this study, Labor’s pragmatic use of Medicare is reflected in three aspects:use of Medicare to facilitate Labor’s electoral success, contrast between Labor’s pre-election rhetoric and its post-election actions on Medicare policies, and its deployment of double standards on Medicare policies. Liberal’s pragmatic use of Medicare is reflected in two aspects:its final conversion to a Medicare supporter after unsuccessful resistance and its flexible choice of measures in response to different circumstances after Medicare became entrenched in Australian health care system.This paper concludes that in the political market, Medicare has been used as a form of political goods by the two major parties to win elections and secure office. Neither party is able to remain consistent in their health policies. Whether or not their health policies are consistent with their ideology, pragmatism is the true reason lying at the core of their health policies.