Healthcare Service As A Social Issue Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Healthcare Service As A Social Issue. Answer: The purpose of this essay is to examine healthcare service as a social issue and the essay further highlights on the past and after those theoretically informed recommendations are provided in the essay. It is a matter of fact that healthcare in the land of Australia is provided by hospitals and nursing homes operated by either government or by public organizations and also by private medical practitioners and medical clinics. In most cases the cost of medical support or treatment is paid by the insurance companies and if the sum surpasses the insured amount then the patient has to pay that sum. It is seen that Medicare can be referred to as Australias universal healthcare system and it is the main health scheme that provides subsidiaries most of the medical costs of all the Australian citizens and the residents of the country (Touati Tabish, 2013). There are also some other schemes that supports the medical costs in some special situations , like those schemes subsidizes the medica l costs of the war veterans or the indigenous people of Australia. In some cases for the tourists, there are some travel insurance schemes that cover the medical costs of the tourists. It is seen that Australian healthcare system actually provides a global access to a comprehensive range of various services which is hugely funded by the general taxation of the government (Srinivasan Arunasalam, 2013). Medicare, Australias healthcare system was initially introduced in the year of 11984 that supports the medical costs of in public hospitals health clinics and also provides subsidiaries to various medical services. The success of Australian healthcare system becomes clear when a statistics came in front stating that in general the life expectancy of the people of Australia ranks third among all the nations worldwide (Sturmberg, O'halloran Martin, 2012). There are some matter of concerns also preset in Australian healthcare services, such as increasing rate of obesity, diabetes, aging and mental illness and many more. Apart from that a long gap is seen in the healthcare services provided for the regular citizens of Australia and the indigenous people of Australia. Most of the medical practitioners are engaged in private medical practices who take fees for the services they offer. MBS (Medical Benefits Schedule) fixes a price or fee for each objects or service that is covered by Medicare for which the federal government provides a fixed rebate. The Medicare Benefit Schedule provides all the medical services provided by the hospitals and also in-hospital medical services for the private patients. It is also a fact that the government allows the private practitioners to set their own fees that expose the patients in front of extra charges. In most cases e 70% medical costs gets covered by Medicare, and the rest has to be paid by the individuals. In Australia, a strong medical care unit is seen and the general practitioners serve the role of a gate keeper, as they check the patients and refer them to the specialists. The treatments done by the specialists get covered by Medicare if only the patient has been referred to a specialist by a general pr actitioner. In the land of Australia, it is seen that government is trying very hard to provide medical supports to the citizens of the country, but in some cases a huge partiality is seen. Such as, in todays world, the aboriginal people of Australia are seen not getting proper medical support from the government due to various reasons. It is seen that Australian government has stopped the educational programs specially designed for the aboriginal people, because they thought that it might affect the teaching of English language in their country. Due to lack of proper education the aboriginal people often gets exposed in front of various diseases (Selkirk et al., 2013). It is also seen that many aboriginal people reside at the remote areas of the country where there are no proper communication system and people who live there are deprived of the medical supports provided by the government. In most cases the aged aboriginal people of Australia gets deprived of these medical supports provided by t he government. In the year of 1850 the New South Wales Board of Health was established after an epidemic caused by small pox disease. The purpose behind the forming of this board was to provide medical advice and to assist people for preventing the spread of the disease. The first ever public health act was introduced in the year of 1896 that clarified the powers of the medical board. In the year 1902 the act was amended and it was said that there will be 10 board members and out of them 4 people has to be medical practitioners. In 1904 the department of public health was established and numerous amendments in the acts strengthened the powers of the board (Radnor, Holweg Waring, 2012). On and from the year of 1902 the board emerged as responsible for supervision of numerous public health acts that involves Abattoir Act of 1850, Leprosy Act of 189, Pure Food Act of 1908, Private Hospital acts 1908 and many more. In the year of 1929 Public Hospital Act emerged as a milestone in the history of public health service in Australia (Hoare, Mills Francis, 2012). By the introduction of this act assurance from the government regarding medical support was initially seen. The act also established Hospitals Commission in New South Wales which had the power of operating separately from the Board of Health. The Board of Health had the responsibility to report to the Health Commission regarding pulic health. In the year of 1973 NSW Health Commission was also established that brought in psychiatric hospitals, public health services and public health programs under a same governing body (Drummond et al., 2015). Later various amendments were made for the betterment of the public health. In 1982 NSW Department of Health was established under Health Administration Act for simplifying the structure of the organization to meet up the changing needs of the society (Britt et al., 2012). Later in the year of 1986 Are Health Boards were also established replacing numerous Hospital Boards. After that during the last decade of 20th century mane much needed amendments were done where amalgamation of Eastern Sydney and Southern Sydneys health services was done and also formation of 8 rural health services were introduced replacing 23 separate District Health Services (Britt et al., 2013). Later in 1997 The Health Service Act was introduced which replaced Public Hospital Act of 1929 and Area Health Service of 1986. This new act strengthens the provisions of the previous acts and introduced numerous new provisions for a modern healthcare system in Australia (Bhm et al., 2013). For further betterment of the healthcare system of Australia some necessary recommendations are provided in this section of the essay. It is a matter of fact that the government needs to invest a lot for technological advancement to provide the best medical support to the residents of Australia (Bergan Bunke-Paquette, 2014). In some remote areas of Australia, the government needs to improve the communication system as due to lack of proper roads or transportation each year a number of people die being deprived of proper medical support and most of them are aboriginal people of Australia, as in the remote areas like coastal areas, or by the woods the aboriginal people reside mainly. The government also needs to restart the educational programs for the aboriginal people they have previously shut down due to some reasons, for generating more social awareness regarding health issues among the aboriginal people. Apart from all these the government must try to generate more awareness rega rding the health issues among all the residents of Australia for the further betterment of the situation (Aminian Naji, 2013). Thus to conclude, it can be said that, improving the general medical condition of the country. The general life expectancy of Australian people is on the higher side, but still it is a duty of the government to provide healthcare support to all the residents of Australia. The government also needs to improve the communication system in many areas so that the medical team could reach up to the people who are deprived of proper medical support. It cannot be denied that the medical support should be equal for all and there are some instances where the aboriginal people are deprived of these supports due to many reasons. Thus it is the duty of the government to maintain equality when it comes to a sensitive issue like receiving proper medical supports, as it is a well known thing that white Australia has a black past, so the government should try hard to bring back the aboriginal people to the regular path of life and provide them with the social security just like the other people recei ve in Australia. References Aminian, M., Naji, H. R. (2013). A hospital healthcare monitoring system using wireless sensor networks.J. Health Med. Inform,4(02), 121. Bergan, J. J., Bunke-Paquette, N. (Eds.). (2014).The vein book. Oxford University Press. Bhm, K., Schmid, A., Gtze, R., Landwehr, C., Rothgang, H. (2013). Five types of OECD healthcare systems: empirical results of a deductive classification.Health Policy,113(3), 258-269. 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