Analysis of National Women’s Health Policy

Running head: POLICY ANALYSIS 1
Analysis of National Women’s Health Policy 2010
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Author Note

POLICY ANALYSIS 2
Introduction
Australia has observed significant growth in the population count of older individuals
with improvement in health care services delivery and a fall in the mortality rate of aged
people. The impending swift growth of the older population in Australia has an important
implication for policy development and the provision of services needed by this target
population. Construction of health care policy is affected by several different factors
including the political, legal and ethical constraints for formulation and enacting a suitable
health care policy.
Political factors and authorities in power often consider evidence-based policymaking
while constructing a health policy. Evidence based policy making is a critical approach by the
politicians to screen out the use of scientific rationality and increase their luxury of time, as
evidence based policy making is an efficient way to screen out discursive and irrelevant
information and eliminate the need for too much research for constructing a policy. However,
such measures of policy making by politicians and other authoritarians in power can critically
downplay democracy with increased politicization (Greer et al., 2017). This is due to the fact
that public opinion and democratic participation are conflicted with managerial and evidence
based approaches in policy making. Political influence over the policy making is usually a
judgment based and biased to prioritization and is constrained by the rule of law, political risk
and public opinion. Other factors that influence the policy making decision regarding health
care reforms for the aged are expected media reception, electoral impacts and agreement
among the political advisers and elites (Green & Thorogood, 2017).
An increase in the understanding and awareness of the social conditions and
determinants that shape the health inequalities is essential while formulating policies to aid
the disadvantaged sections of the population. The disadvantaged population can be stated as
the section of the population that has poor access to health care resources and quality medical

POLICY ANALYSIS 3
care, increasing the risk of negative health outcome in the population (Braveman et al., 2018).
The formulation of health, social and aged care policies, by the government and relevant
authorities, can play a pervasive, powerful and fundamental role in addressing the
disproportionately disadvantaged sections of the population while widening social
inequalities and increasing evidence based practices to understand the social condition and
their health impact that the disadvantaged group is affected. The primary objective of such
health related policies should be to remove health disparities and inequalities by emphasizing
on the health needs of the disadvantaged groups and addressing the social determinants of
health including political and economical that are influencing the health condition of the
targeted groups (Kriznik et al., 2018).
The chosen policy to be analysed in this paper is the National Women’s Health Policy
2010, which is coordinated and formulated by the Department of Health and Ageing,
Government of Australia. The inputs taken into consideration while constructing the policy
for the target population of women in Australia are collected from the written submissions,
public consultations and points highlighted in the National Women’s Health Policy
Roundtable to address the health issues the women are facing and plan steps to improve the
overall well-being of the target population. The National Women’s Health Policy 2010 is
aimed to be highly significant with the improvement of the overall health system of Australia
with the objectives of bringing gender equality, focusing on preventive measures, ensuring
health equity between women and determining a strong and evidence based approach
(Dobson, Byles & Brown, 2016). This policy has high significance as it addresses the critical
section of the population, such as women from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
population, who are at high risk of poor health with increased gap and barriers in accessing
adequate health care services. Moreover, the policy aims at aiding the socio-economically

POLICY ANALYSIS 4
disadvantaged groups of women who are at high risk of poor health with an increased
probability of having children with poor health.
There are a significant differences in the ease of accessibility of health care services
by women living in metropolitan Australia and women from remote and rural, which
increases the health disparity and differences in the health outcomes between the two groups.
This particular policy aims at addressing all the sections of the female population to eliminate
health disparity, thus becoming a prime choice to be analysed in this paper. As the policy has
a vital level of significance and implication with the Australian health care system, it is
important that it is critically examined and analysed to review the practical inference in
removing the health disparity and inequality concerned with the female population.
The calculated burden of disease and injury for women in Australia is 1.3 million
DALYs (Daily-Adjusted Life Year), and women aged above 65 years have the lowest
recorded levels of health literacy in Australia. The health priority areas recognized by the
National Women’s Health Policy 2010 are ageing, reproductive health, sexual health, mental
health, control of risk factors and prevention of chronic diseases. Some of the major risk
factors that have the greatest influence over the health of women are low levels of physical
activity, binge drinking, smoking and obesity (ALSWH Policies and Guidelines, 2020). Some
of the major conditions and diseases identified to be affecting the majority of the women are
dementia, depression, chlamydia, respiratory diseases, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular
diseases. The policy aims at highlighting the specific determinant of women’s health, that is,
gender and address the women living with greatest risk of poor health by prioritizing their
health needs. The policy is highly dependent on evidence based on women’s well-being and
health, with the goal to support the collaborative and effective research and transfer
monitored language. Another primary goal of health establishment by the policy is to ensure
the highest responsiveness of the health system to all the women in Australia, with the