The Australian Health Care System Essay

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.

Healthcare systems are microcosms of the larger society in which they exist. Where there is structural violence or cultural violence in the larger society, so will there be evidence of systematic inequities in the institutions of these societies. The healthcare system in Australia is one example—from a plethora of similarly situated healthcare systems—in which the color of a patient’s skin or the race of his parents may determine the quality of medical received. Life expectancy and infant mortality rates are vastly different for non-Aboriginal, Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islanders residing in Australia. The life expectancy of Aboriginal men is 21 years shorter than for non-Aboriginal men in Australia. For women, the difference is

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.

This service now provides the public, access to see health care professionals for free or for subsidised treatments. The Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) lists all the services that are included for people to access, the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) subsidises essential and necessary medications that patients require, any pharmaceuticals that are not covered will be at cost to the patient or through private health insurance. The Federal Government and State governments fund health promotion and disease prevention services throughout Australia.

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

In the late 1800's Lucy Osburn and five beginner nightingale trained nurses, arrived from London to be employed by the New South Wales Government to work at The Sydney Infirmary for a period of three years. Osburn dedicated sixteen years of her life to the Sydney infirmary. During this time Osburn established the Nightingale system of nursing in Sydney, Australia. In the early 1850’s Nightingale set out to make it her life’s goal to improve hygiene standards, while improving, Nightingale lowered the death rates in Middlesex hospital dramatically. Nightingale in 1860, funded the development of St. Thomas’s Hospital in London and within it, started the Nightingale Training School for Nurses. During this time, there were major changes included adding nursing training into the daily hospital routine, the raising of hygiene standards and the introduction of uniforms. The Nightingale system is on the job training which included theory and clinical. The first academic training schools were established at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and St Vincents hospital in 1882. At first the training duration was two years and increased to three in 1903. During their training, the nurses were rotated around different clinical areas within the hospital to gain experience under the guidance 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.

This paper will examine the healthcare of Indigenous Australian peoples compared to non-indigenous Australians. The life expectancy gaps between the two are a cause for alarm when statistics show Indigenous Australian peoples die on average 17 years earlier than non-indigenous Australians (Dick 2017). This paper will examine the social determinants of health to explore these factors and what interventions are in place to improve health status and life expectancy gaps for equality. The Federal Government has seen the implementation of the Northern Territory Intervention and the Closing the Gap Initiative. This essay will examine these two strategies and discuss the effectiveness of both policies. It will explain the differences, similarities and look at the success so far to

I believe that everyone should have equal access to all health services they require, no matter their cultural background, or where they live. When thinking about the poor health outcomes due to the lack of access that Australians, particularly Indigenous Australians, in rural areas it makes me wonder how the health care system can fail to deliver care to those people.

al., 2011). Health service accessibility by individuals in rural and remote areas is a problem central to both countries. Reports indicate that compared with metropolitan populations, non-metropolitan populations, in both Australia and the UK, experience poor access to health services (Watt, Franks, Sheldon, 1994, p. 16). As in the primary care sector of the UK, majority of the doctors in Australia are self-employed and reimbursed on a fee-for-service approach (Gillies, 2003, p. 77). GP’s are the initial point of contact for patients in both Australia and the UK. Additional specialist medical services such as physiotherapy and optometry are only available when patients are provided with a formal referral from their GPs (Piterman, Koritsas, 2005). Although the NHS is similar to the Australian health system in certain ways, both systems also possess some differences.

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,

Australia is a two tiered system including a private and public sector. Medicare is a universal health insurance scheme under the public system. It was introduced on the 1st of February 1984 by the Australian Labor party the principal is for all Australian to have equal access to health. There are three levels of government these include Local, State or territory and Federal, all three have different roles to perform in terms of health care. The local government is responsible for towns and districts, moreover, local councils or shires function is to operate systems and projects such as sewage, garbage disposals and maintenance of the safety food standard. Both state and federal direct different parts of Medicare. State government manages public hospital within their territory or state, the state government receives 40%-50% of the total cost of expenditures for the public hospital from the Federal government. Lastly, Federal role includes payments to primary health services there include GPs, the majority of nurses, medical specialists and allied health professionals. In 1996 Budget guaranteed the renewal of private health insurance.

The first hospital was built in Auckland and Wellington in year 1845 and 1846 respectively. The hospitals were also build in Dunedin and in Christchurch in 1851 and 1862. The first legislation under the hospital act was passed in 1885.The department of health was again reconstructed in 1920, Its first head was Te Rangi Hiroa and later on its under the control of Maori doctor named Edward Ellison.The New Zealand’s national health care system was established in the 1930 and Maori Health councils founded in 1931.Its main motive was to provide free medical care by salaried medical practitioners. At that time, the system has two types of care, primary and secondary care. The primary care was provided by state funds but it was controlled by Individual doctors and the secondary care was under the state and utilized with the government subsidies.