Gough Whitlam overcame fierce resistance to usher in universal health care

By Dan Harrison
Updated October 22 2014 - 2:08am, first published October 21 2014 - 4:40pm

When Gough Whitlam took office, only Queensland and Tasmania provided free public hospital treatment, and more than a million people could not afford insurance. While the then Coalition government provided tax incentives to encourage people to purchase private cover, these were grossly inequitable.

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