Is Medicare free in Australia?

Is Medicare free in Australia, yes for Australian citizens, permanent residents and some temporary residents from reciprocal countries, Medicare provides free or heavily subsidised healthcare, but not everything is free. Medicare is funded by 2% Medicare levy on taxable income plus government revenue. For eligible people, it provides free treatment as a public patient in public hospitals, including emergency, surgery and hospital stays, free or bulk-billed GP visits if GP bulk bills, and subsidised specialist visits with 85% to 100% of schedule fee covered, and subsidised prescriptions under PBS where you pay $31.60 general or $7.70 concession per script in 2024-2025. So going to emergency department in public hospital is free, and seeing bulk-billing GP is free. However, not all services are free, many GPs charge gap fee of $30 to $80, specialists charge gap of $100 to $300, private hospital treatment costs money unless you have private health insurance, dental is not covered except for children via Child Dental Benefits Schedule, optical, physio and ambulance not covered in most states. For tourists without RHCA, Medicare is not free, they pay full cost. For citizens, Medicare is free at point of use in public system, but you pay via levy and gaps. About 70% of GP visits are bulk billed free, 30% have gap. So Medicare is free for public hospital and bulk-billed services, but not entirely free for all healthcare, which is why 45% of Australians have private health insurance for private hospitals and extras.