Aside from Labor’s effective (but inaccurate) ‘Mediscare’ campaign in the run-up to the last federal election, recent polls have been largely devoid of discussions around health policy.

The recent history of both Coalition and Labor governments — in terms of what they delivered rather than what they promised — shows that neither did much beyond containing costs by capping Medicare payments.

And any hope that the MBS Review Taskforce, which has been in motion since the last election, would come up with some real answers is increasingly doubtful.

Like most national health systems, ours has some uniquely quirky features. We have a universal Medicare insurance program committed to a general practice gatekeeper. But we are progressively starving those gatekeepers.