Structural interests and Australian health policy.

Health policy has been a matter of public discussion in Australia since the late 1960s. Mirroring the United States experience, much of the debate initially centred around the introduction of a universal national health insurance scheme but since the mid 1970s economic conditions have changed and contemporary decisions are often accompanied by rhetoric about the need to constrain costs which are portrayed as increasing out of control. These changes have been associated with changes in the relative influence of the dominant and challenging structural interests within the health sector. This article analyses the influence of those interests in Australian health policy since the mid 1960s.