Before Bob Hawke's Medicare, hospitalisation made many Australians bankrupt

[Mighty AU]

It was a huge change for Australians — not only from a medical care point of view, but for financial security.

With the death of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, many are pointing to the introduction of Medicare as one of his signature policy achievements.

Before Medicare, most Australian families had to pay for private insurance to cover their expenses in hospital. 
Author and associate professor Jim Gillespie from the University of Sydney said once you were in hospital, the clock was ticking.

"If you earned more than a certain amount of money, you'd have to pay. So, you'd have to have insurance for hospital or you'd have to pay out of your own pocket," he said.

Mr Gillespie said insurance could also run out during a hospital stay.

"Like private health insurance today, if you were on a lower level of it, which most people would've been on, you'd be covered for a certain number of days of hospitalisation. And people tended to stay in hospital much longer then," he said. 

This meant when someone needed hospital treatment, often many families quickly faced enormous financial pressure.

Queensland had universal access to hospital care, but other state and territory systems were means tested.

Medical expenses drove families into poverty

The situation in Australia before Medicare was similar to America today — medical expenses could push families into poverty.

“Hospital and medical expenses were one of the largest reasons for personal and non-business-related bankruptcy before Medicare," Mr Gillespie said.

“After Medicare they actually removed it from the published list of reasons because it fell so low."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-18/bob-hawke-what-did-australia-have-before-medicare/11124180

[CertainDOOM]

It's absolutely fascinating to me how he appealed to basically everyone, that's pretty much unimaginable in modern politics.

[skyms2663]

Wish these attitudes still persisted today.

[Araknid]

Wish we had a pm like him now.

[Dubious]

beer chugging "socialists" are the true neutral