- Richard Scotton
Richard "Dick" Bailey Scotton AO is an Australian
health economist . He is best known as the original author of the Australian Medicare program - Australia's first and current system of publicly-fundeduniversal health care .Scotton was educated at the
University of Sydney where he obtained aBachelor of Arts and aBachelor of Economics .Medicare
Between 1965 and 1970, Scotton worked with John Deeble to formulate a universal health care system for Australia. At that time, Australia was coming to the end of more than two decades of conservative government by the Liberal-National Coalition under Prime Ministers
Robert Menzies ,Harold Holt John Gorton andWilliam McMahon . The Liberal and National parties opposed such a system, and so the plan was initially rejected. However, the Government's attitude changed in 1972 with the election of the reformistWhitlam Labor Government, who had campaigned promising to implement free universal health care in Australia for the first time. Scotton then entered the public service to implement his Medicare (known at the time as Medibank) program as chairman of the Health Insurance Commission (1973-1976). He worked closely with Social Security MinisterBill Hayden as a Special Advisor for several years. [ [http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/173_01_030700/scotton2/scotton2.html eMJA: Scotton, Medicare: options for the next 25 years ] ]Academic career
He spent part of his career at the
University of Melbourne . Scotton then held senior administrative positions in the Health Commission of Victoria and the Victorian Accident Compensation Commission. He then retured to academia as a Professorial Fellow in health economics atMonash University 's Centre for Health Program Evaluation. [ [http://www.adm.monash.edu.au/records-archives/archives/memo-archive///memo00/issue20-00/about.html Monash Memo: 21 June 2000 About Monash ] ] In 2000, Scotton retired from full time work. [ [http://www.usyd.edu.au/alumni/about/profiles/1950s.shtml GRADUATED IN THE 1950s - Alumni & Friends - The University of Sydney ] ]References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
