A country’s true growth is possible only if it has a strong and stable government. A country is said to be truly prosperous if it has a good education system, employment rate, military power, infrastructure and healthcare system. In today’s world, diseases and infections are on the rise, example: the current COVID 19 Pandemic that has shattered the globe. It is in such situations that a country’s healthcare system is put to the test.
In such circumstances, one can clearly observe how the country’s medical centres are able to tackle a huge outbreak that threatens the life of its citizens. At the end of the day, it is all a matter of whether healthcare is available, accessible and affordable to all of the country’s citizens.
Australia healthcare systems is best because it has been successful in providing safe and affordable healthcare for Australians nationals. This has been made possible only because of the joint cooperation of all 3 levels of the Australian government: federal, state and territory, and local.
The foundation or base of the Australian Healthcare System is ‘Medicare’. Medicare was first established in 1984 and has since then served as the core ideals of the Australian Healthcare System. Medicare governs three major components of the Australian Healthcare System: medicines, medical services and public hospitals. So now let’s take a look at what are the strengths and weaknesses of the Australian Healthcare System.
STRENGTHS OF THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
Every healthcare system has it’s set of strengths. The main strengths of the Australian Healthcare System are:
1. The Medicare Benefits Schedule:
The Medicare Benefits Schedule is a list of all the healthcare services that the Government of Australia subsidizes. This is really useful as it keeps Australian Nationals in the know about healthcare policies, services and other medical updates.
2. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme:
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme helps reduce the cost of medicines and contributes to making medicines accessible, available and especially affordable.
3. Government responsibilities:
The 3 levels of government work together to:
● Support and regulate private health insurance
● Support and monitor quality, effectiveness and efficiency of public hospitals and other primary health care services
● Subsidize aged care services
● Publish healthcare and welfare information and statistics
● Fund healthcare and medical research
● Fund veterans’ healthcare
● Fund community controlled health care organisations
● Ensure that doctors are distributed equitably across the country
● Regulate medicines and medical devices
● Coordinate responses to national health emergencies, such as pandemics
WEAKNESSES OF THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
While the Australian Healthcare System offers its citizens remarkable and high quality health services it has its own set of drawbacks.
● It fails to provide coverage for dental, vision, long-term care and life insurance
● It fails to address fragmentation arising from the conflicts between Commonwealth and state funded services
● It has poor coordination of service planning and delivery
● It suffers from system inadequacies, including workforce shortages and poor communication systems.
