The Federal Government has splashed $1.15B on the controversial health system, up to 30 June 2016, according to the Department of Health. In total, over $1.2B has been allocated to its budget up to the 2017/18 FY.

But despite the big spending, only 4.4 million Australians currently have a My Health Record, or about 18%.

According to a Department of Health spokesperson, there are more healthcare providers now using the system, an average of over 4,000 a week in the last three months compared to 2,200 providers in the three months up to 7 February 2016.

Launched by Labor in 2012 as the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR), the original ‘opt-in’ scheme managed to get just 2.2 million people, or 10% of the population, to sign up in three years.

Instead of scrapping it, the new Coalition government announced in the 2015-16 budget it would spend a further $485 million moving the system to an opt-out model.

Image: My Health Record Statistics – as at 4 December 2016.