Essay on Australian Health Care

The Australian health care system is not a very complicated one, it is solely based on two main sectors which are the ‘public’ and ‘private’. The public sector allows one to claim health care benefits and payments through the universal health coverage developed by the Australian government, called Medicare. Medicare is completely free and paid by the government through income tax received to help pay for medical, optical and hospital care (Humanservicesgovau, 2016). It also has a sub-division called the ‘Medicare safety net’ which is more so given to those on significantly low incomes to aid in financial distress. Similarly, the private sector is made up of different companies entitling different benefits, usually consisting of two plans, ‘hospital’ and ‘generic’ (Privatehealthgovau, 2016). The private health care system is more so for people who need immediate attention as the public health system has a waiting list for many different types of operations. Private health system is also customisable in circumstances such as

Local Aboriginal community control in health is important as this classifies the Aboriginal entire health. Thus, it allows Aboriginal communities to find out their own relationships, protocols and procedures. NACCHO represents local Aboriginal community control at a national level. By making sure that Aboriginal people have a greater right of entry to valuable health care within Australia. A coordinated holistic response is provided by NACCHO from the community sector. Therefore, it is promoting for culturally respectful and approaches to needs requirement. This shows the improvement in health and wellbeing through ACCHSs with better outcome.

The Australian healthcare system has been evolving since the beginning of the colonisation of Australia. Today, Australia has an extremely efficient healthcare system although it still has several issues. The influencing factors, structure, and current issues of the Australian healthcare system will be throughly discussed and explained in this essay.

The healthcare system in Australia is complex involving many funders and healthcare providers. In 2011 to 2012 the health expenditure in Australia was estimated to have been $140.2 billion, which made up 9.5 percent of gross domestic product in that year (AIHW, 2013). Responsibilities are split between different levels of government, and between the government and non-government sectors. With non-government sources funding for about 30 percent of the total health expenditure each year (AIHW, 2013). Australians make their contribution to their healthcare system through taxes, including the Medicare levy, and through private financing such as private health insurance. Private health insurance in Australia is a voluntary facility for private funding of hospital care and ancillaries. Insurance funds may cover the costs of treatment for private patients in private or public hospitals and can include some services that Medicare does not cover. The Australian governments fund for almost 70 percent of the health expenditure each year (AIHW, 2013). The federal government contributes to approximately two-thirds, while State, Territory and local governments together contribute for the other one-third (AIWH, 2013). As a generalization the Australian government is primarily responsible for the funding of healthcare, through health insurance arrangements and direct payments to the state and territories, while state and territories are primarily responsible

The Australian Medicare system is essentially based around private practice and fee-for-service. In England, they have the National Health Service, which is a publicly funded healthcare system, this is the oldest and biggest

As a people, our rate of chronic disease is still 2.5 times higher than that of other Australians, and Indigenous people in this country die 15 to 20 years younger than those in mainstream Australia. More than half of

The Australian health care system is a highly functioning and accessible system based on universal principles of access and equity. In this essay I will discuss the historical evolution and current structure of our health system, identifying current health service models of delivery and look at its strengths, weaknesses, policies and health priorities currently in Australia. I will discuss the roles of government and non-government health services in service provision and funding sources of Australian health. We will get a better insight of the role of standards for residential aged care and look into a broad range of professions that consumers may engage with in health service delivery, their roles and functions of each profession.

A way the government control diseases in the population is by planning and evaluating the health and social care provision, they do this by assessing the services that are being provided and see if they are helping problems that take place. It is also important that when infectious diseases have come up, it is a legal requirement that it is reported to the appropriate people, by doing this measures can be put in place to stop them spreading. An example for this is when diseases such as Tuberculosis (TB) and Measles are diagnosed or suspected, the local medical officer is responsible for monitoring the disease and

Medicare is the publicly funded health care system for everyone in Australia. It exists side-by side with private health care system.

All people across the globe are entitled to the health attention they require. The World Health Organization has identified five elements to achieve this goal. These include reducing social disparities in health, providing services that meet clients’ expectations, altering public policies to address health, leadership reforms and increasing stakeholder participation (WHO, 2013).

Department of Health and Ageing in Australia has a range of responsibilities but all of these responsibilities aim to insure "Better

Australians continue to experience health comparable to those of other developed countries. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW] (2016) the life expectancy of Australians at birth remains one of the highest in the world. Furthermore, death rates are decreasing and survival rates are improving for many major health issues such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases (AIHW, 2016). Yet, the Australian health care data has shown that improvements can be made in health care.

Canada’s health care system “can be described as a publicly-funded, privately-provided, universal, comprehensive, affordable, single-payer, provincially administered national health care system” (Bernard, 1992, p.103). Health care in Canada is provincial responsibility, with the Canada Health act being a federal legislation (Bernard, 1992, p. 102). Federal budget cuts, has caused various problems within Medicare such as increased waiting times and lack of new technology. Another problem with Medicare is that The Canada Heath Act does not cover expenditures for prescriptions drugs. All these issue has caused individuals to suggest making Medicare privatized. Although, Canada’s health care system consists of shortcomings, our universal

Key Historical, Key political and Key socio-cultural influence that have shaped healthcare access in contemporary Australian society.

The welfare state model of healthcare is a system where the government provides healthcare for all Australian citizens through Medicare (Department of Health, 2014). Medicare is given by the Australian government to all Australian citizens and permanent residents, therefore the government pays in full, or subsidises, public hospital services, referred consultations with allied health professionals, and non- medical treatments for these individuals (Krassnitzer & Willis, 2016, p27). Medicare is regulated through eligibility criteria including that the health professional in private practice must be registered,