Issues That Are Facing Australian Health Systems - Essay Example

Politics Assignment Executive summary This report analyses the speech delivered by Minister for Health and Sport of Australia, Honourable Peter Dutton. In his speech Dutton calls for change of policy to increase efficiency and productivity and cut down on spending. The report starts with an introduction that draws the direction of the report and what it entails. The report has been analyzed through various perspectives that include economic, sociological, political, and epidemiological perspectives respectively. The importance of a good policy and the essence of what the Minister is advocating for have been echoed at the end. The report winds up with a conclusion and a list of references. Introduction A public policy refers to a decision by the cabinet, a piece of legislation or just a political compromise. It portrays the intention or choice arrived at by the government and communicated to the public. The Minister for Health and Sport, Peter Dutton, calls for change in the public policy concerning health care system in order to deal with the challenge of rising costs of medical care in the wake of an ageing population (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010). There are several aspects that the Minister for Health and Sport covers in his speech. The theme chosen for the conference is very accurate and the Minister echoes this factor by pointing out how the theme summarizes everything about the conference being held. Developed nations around the world are facing a dilemma because they are encountering problems that did not anticipate. The issues raised in the speech can be analyzed from different perspectives that include economic, sociological, political, and epidemiological perspectives. These issues will be analyzed in this report. Economic perspective The objective is to minimize the cost of health services output and distribution of output in the health activities with the target of maximizing service recipients’ welfare. There should be value for money spent on health services or allocative efficiency. The costs of services reaching the consumers have to be affordable and manageable considering the household’s income (Jamison & Murray, 2010). The Minister has raised various economic issues in his speech. The government has to foot the bill for present health challenges and invest models of prevention allowing head room for emerging costs. The treasure observes that Australia is borrowing $1b every month for payment of the interest bill and if there is no policy change the figure can reach $3b per month in the next a decade (Greig, Lewins & White, 2003). The government has to have a policy change to contain these costs. The government is newly elected and the first year budgets always border controversy. Some of the headlines in the media portrayed the government as cutting down expenditure in the health portfolio but spending has been increasing year after year and is expected to rise to over $74b from $65b currently (Kronenfeld, 2002). There is increased spending on Medical Befits Schedule (MBS) from 46% in the past five years and currently $10b is being raised through Medical Levy and $20b spend on Medicare every year. The Minister points out that that the cost will increase to $34b in the next ten year if there is no policy change. Essentially the minister is offering economic reasons about medical care expenditure that calls for change in policy. He suggests the introduction of modest co-payment having safety needs to offer support to Australians who cannot afford the $7. Some Europe models are expensive and change to about $17. The Minister is worried about the increasing health expenditure of the country and calls upon every speaker in the conference to echo the call for reduction. The expert evidence presented to both Gillard and Rudd governments in independent reviews led by Simon McKeon and Christine Bennett also called for the course of action. Attainment of sustainability has been termed as realizing of tangible gains in productivity and efficiency in the entire health system. Annual public hospital funding was $7b a decade ago and currently it stands at $15 billion and it is projected to reach $36b in the next decade if there is no policy change. Like in the other developed countries, increase in public hospital spending at 9% annually is unsustainable (Barker, 1996). Professor Bennett noted that waste in health care is both an economic and an ethical issue. More investment has to be done in research that is a backbone of innovation. About 25% of the health budget is spent on inpatient care in the last eighteen months of life with no prospects of survival. Sociological perspective The perspective offers insight into cultural and societal bases of relations and looks keenly at power bases like subordination and domination. Workers have to be treated with equity and fairly. The speech by Minister for health and Sport, Mr. Dutton, highlights several sociological factors that are affecting Australian Health services. Medicare Locals need transformation into primary health network that will result into better outcomes and push investment into preventive health care models. The Minister observes that the relationship between allied professionals, nurses, and doctors will be critical to the model. Patient outcomes will drive success and remuneration for PHN’s. The Minister calls for transparency in outcomes and creating a competitive environment across the network (Nissim, 2012). The government is focused on reforming the health system to a strong and more responsive health system in the 21st century. In the speech the Minister goes on to outline what should be done including introduction of new ways of sustaining and financing health care in the future; review of on duplication, ineffectual programs, unmanageable spending, waste and unnecessary bureaucracy; and go back to a public hospital funding approach. Political perspective The perspective looks at the influence of stakeholders and distribution of power. The health system despite being world-class is greatly affected by inefficiencies and waste compounded by the involvement of two or three levels of government (Palmer & Short, 2000). The government targets to reduce bureaucratic and administrative burden in order to increase productivity. In existing policy an activity is funded whether it has occurred or not hence putting the burden on the taxpayers. The reality that territories and states manage the public hospitals in Australia has to be recognized (James & Davies, 2012). Experts pointed out that Australia requires a stronger connection between medical research and health, health care services’ delivery. Research has to be translated into practice to benefit the health care system. The territorial and states governments have to work together for the common good of the health care system. The Commonwealth has to focus on training, education, advance care planning and quality improvement. Advance care plans have to be part of mainstream patient-centered care. The Minister promises to do more at the Federal Government level to support the health care workers. Doctors, specialists, nurses and patients are being consulted for the implementation of the electronic health record (Rosenberg & Weissman, 2006). All stakeholders have to be involved before implementation to avoid failure like it was witnessed in the last government. Epidemiological perspective Health status is more determined by social, economic, environmental, and lifestyle factors rather than health services. Australia has to grapple with an ageing population where the public is demanding early adoption of listings and technologies of life saving medicines targeting a smaller patient group (Harper & Hamblin, 2014). Many developed nations face the challenge of having to deal with a ballooning population of ageing people. Medical care for the elderly increases since they more prone to diseases and hence without medical insurance cover families are facing the threat of imminent death of the elderly members. Dementia is a term used generally to describe the decline in the mental ability affecting the daily life of a person (Birch & Draper, 2008). Dementia is a disease that is associated with the elderly members of the society. Dementia is characterized by the steady loss of memory or skills of thinking to the extent of interfering with the ability of the person to perform daily duties. Alzheimer’s is the common kind of dementia. The symptoms of dementia vary from one situation to another. Core mental functions affected by dementia include communication and language, memory, visual perception, reasoning and judgment, and ability to pay attention and focus (Caplan & Rabinowitz, 2010). A case is considered dementia if any of the two symptoms mentioned are visible. The Minister raises the issue of the prevalence of dementia in the Australian society. The number of people diagnosed with dementia it is anticipated to reach 7500 per week by 2050 (Dougall, Bruggink & Ebmeier, 2004). Complex medical and care needs will increase tremendously. MRI testing for prostate cancer is on the rise and the cost for medical care is surging upwards from all statistics. Stronger and more co-ordinated response at the primary level is needed to keep people out of tertiary settings at all costs. A good policy is characterized by clarity of the policy goal and the manner in which implementation was planned as compared with what actually took place. The minister outlines what the government intends to achieve in the change of policy and how it plans to implement the policy by involving all stakeholders to avoid failure (Mechanic, 2005). The current policy is unsustainable considering the increasing costs of health care and various inefficiency and waste in management. The Minister concludes by pointing out the progress that has happened particularly with regard to communication. Conclusion The minister has discussed various issues that are facing Australian Health systems and he calls for change in policy to deal with the challenges. The ageing population is escalating the cases of dementia and spending on emergency services. The involvement of different levels of governments compounds the inefficiency due to administrative and bureaucratic inefficiencies. The Minister has emphasized the increased focused on research and translating it into practice to benefit the healthcare system. The speech has raised important issues that plagued Australian health care system and a policy change is needed to reverse the current change witnessing increased costs. References Barker, C. (1996). The Health Care Policy Process, London: SAGE. Birch D, & Draper J (2008). A critical literature review exploring the challenges of delivering effective palliative care to older people with dementia, J Clin Nurs 17 (9): 1144–63. Caplan, J.P., & Rabinowitz, T. (2010). An approach to the patient with cognitive impairment: Delirium and dementia, The Medical clinics of North America 94 (6): 1103–16. Dougall, N.J., Bruggink, S., & Ebmeier, K.P. (2004). Systematic review of the diagnostic accuracy of 99mTc-HMPAO-SPECT in dementia, The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 12 (6): 554–70. Greig, A., Lewins, F., & White, K. (2003) Inequality in Australia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harper, S., & Hamblin, K. (2014). International Handbook on Ageing and Public Policy, London: Edward Elgar Publishing. James, A., & Davies, A. (2012). Geographies of Ageing: Social Processes and the Spatial Unevenness of Population Ageing, London: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Jamison, D., & Murray, C. J. (2010). Public financing of health in developing countries: A cross-national systematic analysis, The Lancet 375 (9723): 1375–1387. Johnson, J.A., & Stoskopf, C.H. (2010). Comparative Health Systems: Global Perspectives, Sydney: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Kronenfeld, J.J. (2002). Health Care Policy: Issues and Trends, Ontario: Greenwood Publishing Group. Mechanic, D. (2005). Policy Challenges in Modern Health Care, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. Nissim, C., (2012). Policy entrepreneurs and the design of public policy: Conceptual framework and the case of the National Health Insurance Law in Israel, Journal of Social Research & Policy, 3 (1): 5-26 Palmer, G.R., & Short, S.D., (2000). Health Care and Public Policy: An Australian Analysis, Melbourne: Macmillan Education AU. Rosenberg, G., & Weissman, A. (2006). International Social Health Care Policy, Programs, and Studies, New York: Routledge. Read More