The Friends of Medicare is an alliance of organisations concerned to protect Medicare as the basis for universal access to high quality health care based on need.

Its members are the Public Health Association of Australia, the Doctors Reform Society, the Australian Council of Social Services, the Australian Nurses Federation, the Australian Women’s Health Network and the Health Issues Centre.

Friends of Medicare was launched in 1999 because the health care debate had become a battlefield in which politicians, the medical profession and private health insurance and private health hospital operators were vying for dominance. Friends of Medicare was promoted as a public interest alliance that was not motivated by profit like many of the other players.

The compiling of these Fact Sheets was one of the Friends’ first tasks, and they have been recently updated with the addition of Sheets on Lifetime Health Cover and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The Fact Sheets encourage a debate that is informed by a comprehensive review of the issues, rather than the simplistic assertions of shock jocks and 10 second media grabs. The issues are complex, but the Friends of Medicare believe we should be very cautious about jeopardising a system that is internationally acclaimed as providing a very cost-effective and efficient universal health care system.

For more information on the Friends of Medicare visit the web site www.phaa.net.au and click ‘Friends of Medicare’.

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