Australia's Albanese starts election campaign touting healthcare credentials

(Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese touted his Labor party's credentials on affordable healthcare on Saturday, the first full day of campaigning for a general election expected to have cost of living as a central issue.

Albanese on Friday called the election for May 3 as his centre-left Labor runs neck-and-neck in opinion polls with the Liberal-National opposition led by Peter Dutton, who has campaigned on a housing crisis that he says is putting home ownership out of reach.

After enjoying a healthy lead for much of his term, Albanese's personal approval ratings are now near those of Dutton, a former police officer and the defence minister in the last conservative government.

Labor, which in February pledged an extra A$8.5 billion ($5.3 billion) for Medicare, bills its protection of Australia's universal healthcare scheme as a key difference between it and the Liberal-National coalition, which says it is superior on economic management and border protection.

"At this election, this little card here, your Medicare card, is what is at stake," Albanese said while campaigning in Dutton's electorate in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland state.

Medicare, established by Labor in 1984, guarantees all Australians and some overseas visitors access to a wide range of health and hospital services at low or no cost.

Liberal leader Dutton, also campaigning in Brisbane, said: "I want to make sure that it's easier, not harder, for Australians, and this election really is about who can manage the economy."

On Friday he said cutting permanent migration by 25% would boost home-building. Longer-term, Dutton wants to adopt nuclear power in the country.

Albanese has received little benefit from slowing inflation and the central bank's first interest rate cut in five years. The prime minister says a Liberal-National government would axe public programmes and revoke modest new tax cuts passed by parliament.

($1 = 1.5906 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by William Mallard)