Australia and Canada share many characteristics, but Canadians may not know one of them is that Australia’s universal health insurance scheme, Medicare, was modelled on Canada’s, albeit adapted to account for constitutional differences between the two countries.
There are indeed a number of areas where Australia’s experience might prove helpful to Canada. The first is the public funding of pharmaceuticals. Australia has had a national Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme since the late 1940s. It now provides comprehensive coverage against the cost of pharmaceuticals for the whole population. The scheme, though, requires patients to make a modest co-payment for each prescription. For people on income support (retirees, unemployed) the co-payment is $6.30 ($6.34); for the rest of the population it is $38.80. There is a safety net, which drops the price to zero or $6.30 after about 50-60 prescriptions a year.
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