This report presents an evidence-based review of the Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN), which was introduced at a time when Australians were facing substantial increases in out-of-pocket costs for their medical services.

Patricia Apps, Ray Rees and Elizabeth Savage analyse the Howard government's recent Medicare reform. {C} Using models of the physician's behaviour and of a household's demand for medical insurance under the proposed system, they argue that those most likely to be made worse off are low income households with children, though a full evaluation of...