AUSTRALIAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

Australian Health Care System

Australian Health Care System

Abstract

The health system of Australia is one of the best systems of the world. It has different funding and government organizations that are taking part to make further improvement in the system according to the growing demand and increasing diseases that have been recorded recently. There are eight different streams of the reforms. The chosen stream is Primary Health Care Reform. It is described as the health care program for aging people and their health requirements.

The document consists of the primary health care reform, its availability to aging people in different regions, the problems they face and recommendations to further improve the system.

Thesis Statement

The primary health care system reform needs to be improved in order to meet increasing demand of aging people in Australia

Introduction

Australia has a significant health status. However, there are many groups who have poor health status. The diseases exist in Australia are same as those exist in developed countries. The life expectancy of girls is 81 years and life expectancy of boys is 75.2 years. The private healthcare centres and public healthcare centres provide services to the patients whose regulatory control and funding control, is in hands of the state government and federal government. Medicare provides free treatment to patients in public healthcare centres regulated and owned by the government. The contribution of the healthcare industry in Australia GDP is between 9%-10%; 70% spending is on public healthcare centres and 30% spending is on private healthcare centres (Nicholson et al., 2012, p.21-22).

Public and private healthcare sector

Commonwealth plays a leadership role in making a decision of healthcare services. The government is responsible for the delivery of healthcare services and maintains a relationship with the private healthcare centres. The government provides healthcare services to the community and the residents. The government provides funds to the healthcare services. Besides this, the private hospitals also contribute in funding and providing services to the senior citizens. Private sector provides residential care services to the senior citizens and receives fund from the commonwealth (Healy & Hall, 2011, p.1).

Delivery of healthcare services

A small numbers of doctors employed by the local and state government and many of the doctors are self-employed. Salaried doctors can see the patients privately also by charging fees to them and contributing a portion of that fees in the income of the hospital. The public hospitals are government by the government of Australia, but established by both; government and the charitable or religious bodies. On the other hand, non-profit and profit organizations own the private hospitals. Nowadays, all the private hospitals are providing innovative and technological healthcare services. The mental healthcare services have separate centres. The senior citizens get both residential and community medical services. Public hospitals provide medicines to the patients free of cost and private hospitals' pharmaceutical operations operate under PBS (pharmaceutical-benefit-scheme).

Australian funding system

Australasian funding system provides universal healthcare services to the patients that are accessible and affordable. Medicare plays a significant role in the national funding ...