The Concept of Equity of Access in the Australian Healthcare System

The Australian health care system is one of the most complex yet comprehensive health systems in the world. With a life expectancy 2 years greater than the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) average and over 85 % of people reporting their health to be good or very good, Australia fares very well in relation to health and well-being status of its population in comparison to most other OECD countries (OECD Better Life Index n.d.).

Over the course of our countries history, the delivery of our health care system has tried to meet the needs of our growing and changing population. However, we somehow seem to fall short in delivering our goals of providing quality, affordable and accessible healthcare to our citizens. The history of our delivery system will show we continuously changed the delivery of our system however never mange to control cost. If we can come up with efficient ways to cut cost, the delivery of quality care will follow.

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.

The primary care practice is essential to improve the care of our population, our current system is fragmented, but it does show potential for improvement. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has listed some areas that will help improve our system. One is “the need for external infrastructure to help primary care practices develop quality improvement” this is done with support to the quality capacity (Agency For Healthcare Research and Quality, 2015). Quality care will include the coordination of care within the system, as well as understanding what needs the patient will have

“The Australian health care system is a highly functioning and accessible system based on universal principles of access and equity”.

With these outstanding evidences the Commonwealth Fund placed United States last in terms of overall health system ranking measured by different categories of access to care, equity, quality, efficiency and healthy lives compared to other developed countries. Among those rank categories, our health system is specifically placed last in access to care and efficiency. 37% of the adults in United States reported that they did not receive the recommended treatment, surgery or follow up care due to high cost. 40% of adults who had visited emergency room reported that they could have instead just visited a regular doctor if it was available. U.S. was also ranked last in infant mortality rate and amount of deaths preventable through timely access to healthcare.

The Australian government realized that there is something different about rural health that requires special actions. This realization was the reason for the development of rural health policies. The aim of the policies is to insure ‘equivalent’ access to good health and health care for people in rural places. The implementation of this policies was highly challenged by different factors including political and community reactions and therefore the outcome of the policy is affected also (Farmer & Currie, 2009) .

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.

The United States is an incredibly diverse country. This diversity possesses significant strain particularly on the healthcare system. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality access to healthcare is defined as “the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best health outcomes” (Chapter 9 Access). Therefore, access of healthcare begins once an individual enters the system. Entry can be compromised if there are not enough necessary facilities, employees, or an individual is unable to afford care. Secondly, there needs to be sufficient facilities that offer services that are a necessity of the community.

Many organizations, including the Commonwealth Fund, have recognized what constitutes individuals as having both adequate access, and outcomes, of health care. The presence of consistency

Modifying Indigenous healthcare systems to more closely tailor the communities’ needs enables its citizens to feel comfortable utilising provided services, as well as having the ability to navigate freely around their healthcare system and use the supplied resources effectively. This sees government representatives making all services responsive to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who will be provided with greater choices in the services they are able to use. ATSI Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calama had previously said in a statement concerning a UN report that “In recent years, as a nation, we have taken some giant steps forward in relation to our Indigenous peoples”, demonstrating the government’s effort to ensure resources and funding are distributed fairly and without discrimination. This is (seen) to be a part of the Australian Government’s Indigenous 2014-2015 budget outcomes which marks the amounts of more than $920 million to be prospectively spent on the provision of health programmes specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This includes Medicare and improved access to pharmaceuticals through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, particularly in remote areas; which has in the past been considered the

Health care disparities are the main crux of the American health care system because while American enjoys some of the most advanced health technology the world, it is very much market based, causing health care inequality. These inequalities force people of lower socioeconomic status without insurance to visit emergency rooms once their health problems are catastrophic, expensive, and difficult to treat. By transferring the health system to a proactive system with increased medical education and governmental subsidization, a patient will not only experience diminished health care costs, but also an improved quality of

Access to care constitutes of five measurements such as availability, accessibility, accommodation, affordability, and acceptability. This means acceptable and affordable health services should be available to required persons at

Its without doubt that there are countless ways to define efficiency in the health care system. The different structures of the health care systems around the world give rise to discrepancies in the definitions present. Yet such definitions all share common elements. Hence a unanimous statement of what efficiency is should be adopted to allow the fair evaluation of health care systems internationally. Efficiency should be simply defined as the balanced relationship between the inputs to health care and the maximized outputs that are generated from such inputs. Efficiency can be split into three broad categories, operational efficiency, allocative efficiency and administrative efficiency (Elizabeth A. McGlynn, et al. 2008). With this

In the present scenario achieving effective and efficient health care services is an acute issue that needs an immediate attention. In developing countries this problem is mostly common as the government alone is not fully capable in undertaking different challenges to meet the heath needs of fast growing populations. There was a need to develop an