Australian Health Scheme: Analysis Report of the Australian Health Care

This report analyzes the Australian health care system, including the history and progress of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. It discusses the rate of medicine consumption, consumption cost of medicine, and the roles of the government and private sectors in providing healthcare services. The report also highlights the leading causes of death in Australia and the government's interventions to improve healthcare services. Course code and college/university not mentioned.

Running head: AUSTRALIAN HEALTH SCHEME 1
Australian Health Scheme
Student’s Name
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Table of contents
Executive summary.....................................................................................................................................3
Analysis report of the Australian health care..............................................................................................4
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................4
Rate of medicine consumption................................................................................................................5
Consumption cost of the medicine..........................................................................................................7
References.................................................................................................................................................11

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Executive summary
The paper closely discusses the progress and the current situation of the Australian health
care.it looks at the history of the pharmaceutical benefits scheme and the steps it has made in
improving the health care of the people. Some of the most recent reports regarding the health of
people in Australia have also been highlighted. The report on how much the government has
invested in medication as well as the roles of public towards achieving a good health have been
explained in this paper. The government has enabled some stable and negotiable prices of the
medication in public hospitals. The government is doing everything through the PBS to address
the leading causes of deaths in Australia. The Australian government through the support
contribution to the private health sectors has shown a sense of coordination in the healthcare
system towards availing the medical services to his people. The paper includes the strategies laid
like introduction of PBS to ensure the best quality of healthcare is provided to the people at
affordable cost.

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Analysis report of the Australian health care
Introduction
The pharmaceutical benefits scheme is an initiative by the government of Australia that
makes the prescription medication accessible and cost-effective to the general public. The
pharmaceutical benefits scheme manages to make the medicine available to the people by
providing them at a subsidized prize.The thought of having a body that would regulate the kind
of medicine entering Australia and control their prices was first initiated in 1944. Some people
were against the idea; therefore, it was rejected by the law court. In 1948 PBS began it's under
many limitations. It restricted to ensuring the provision of free medication to the pensioners
(Robertson, Walkom, Bevan, & Newby (2013). Lifesaving medicines and approximately one
hundred and thirty-nine synthetic substitute drugs were made available to the general public. The
scheme got very strong in1953 when it was for the first time allowed to be under the national
health act. Until today the pharmaceutical benefits scheme is among the main components of
national medicine policy. In 1960 PBS restriction to some extent got withdrawn. It became an
all-encompassing scheme which was obligated to assess and allow different types of medication
gain access to Australian citizens. Two hundred and eleven million and above prescription had
been registered to the pharmaceutical benefits scheme for subsidizing by 2014. More than nine
billion dollars is the approximate total amount of money the medication cost the government of
Australia. The amount is averagely twenty-one percent of the total expenditure on health issues.

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The government also established an advisory committee that is not part of pharmaceutical
benefits scheme which is has a responsibility of assess all the drugs and make their
recommendation on which qualifies to be listed by the PBS (Janamian, Crossland, & Wells,
(2016). In addition, the committee recommends the drugs that are supposed to be withdrawn
from the list of PBS because of the public safety.
The Australian therapeutic good register must have listed the medication so that they are
allowed for listing in the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. The companies that produce different
types of medicine have to apply for them to be listed with the therapeutic goods administration.
A medical trial evidence from registered clinics are essential, therefore they must be provided as
a means of ensuring the health safety of the patient who is likely to use the drugs. The set quality
standards must be met by the medication. The drugs must also reduce the amount of money spent
by the government to buy other medicine of the same condition provided in the market.
The national health act states that pharmacist has to be approved for them to dispense
drugs from specific pharmacies. The government caters for a certain percentage of the cost while
the patients pay for the remaining amount. The amount of money paid by the patient for the
medication are decided and set by the PBS to protect the public. A maximum of 37.70 dollars
was paid in 2015 by the pensioners for the PBS drugs, while 6.10dollars were paid by the
cohesion patients for each prescription.
Rate of medicine consumption
Though Australia's life expectancy is among the best in the world, the cases of death
causing diseases are very high. diseases like coronary heart diseases, kidney problems, diabetes,
dementia and stroke are among the main causes of deaths to both men and women. NHS report
in 2014 showed that 1.2 million people were diagnosed with diabetes, over11 million people had

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chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases, cancer and arthritis. Eleven million people were
obese which is estimated to be sixty-three percent of the adult population.
The table below shows the top leading causes of death by sex in Australia between 2014 and
2015.
Disease Men Women
Coronary heart disease 11016 8750
Dementia and Alzheimer
disease
3656 7277
Cerebrovascular diseases 4181 6368
Lung cancer 4995 3222
Chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease
3572 2890
The table is extracted from the AIHW mortality database
A safety net scheme was also established by the government of Australia to make sure
the people with high medications needs feel safe and protected. If a patient had spent around
1453.90 dollars in 2015 on the PBS prescription, the government intervened to ensure for the
best part of the year the patient paid only 6.10 per prescription. A medication policy set by the
Australian government has a responsibility of formulating a suitable framework which should
facilitate the improvement of health throughout the country (Cashin, (2014). The outcomes of
health should be improved through making sure that the Australians get access to the best quality
medications for different health challenges. The main objective of the policy is to improve health
care services for better life for all the people in Australia.

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Consumption cost of the medicine
The roles and responsibilities of the health care system in Australia are shared by the
national government and the local territory and state government. The national government runs
and also funds all the public hospitals while the private health centers are owned and run by the
private sectors. These private hospitals are regulated by government health policies. In 2013 -
2014, the health budget of Australia was 9.8% of the gross domestic income which was
$155billion compared to the 2012- 2013budget that was equivalent to$150. The health expenses
of the Australian healthcare on hospital infrastructure and services delivery remained at 40%
consistency over the decade.
According to the 2013- 2014 health budget, the pharmaceutical cost through
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) was contributed by primary and community care group.
The Australian government of Australia contributed a huge portion in the medical care system
(Mellish. (2015). $105 billion came from the central government which is around 68% of the
Australian budget of 2013- 2012. State and territory government of Australia support the primary
health care with the huge portion of funds to carry out their activities, which is approximately
$6.2 billion. In 2013 the non-governmental sector total contribution was approximately $50
billion that is equal to 18% of the total health expenditure. The funds raised for non- subsidized
medications for example under co-payment medicines, those offered through the counter and for
private patient prescription resulted from individuals and it ranged $9.0 billion. According to the
report from the department of health of 2015 the rate of health expenses increased by 1.7%.
The introduction of the new generic medicines affected the negotiable pharmaceutical
drug prices was due to the significant increase in the expenditure rate. These new medicines lead
to fluctuations of prices in the pharmaceutical market (Cashin, Stasa, Dunn, Pont, & Buckley

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(2014). The situation of inadequate health services was not as a result of the increase in the
subsidized medicines cost due to a wide distribution of generic drugs at this period from 2008
million in 2012 to 223 million in 2013. The reduction scheme policy is responsible for any
changes that occur in the private sector insurance fund regulation tax as authorized by the
Australian government. The policy applied in the 2012 to 2013 period where the private sector
insurance cover altered from 7.4% to 8.3%.
For the private patients who wish to cover the cost of hospital bills or for covering other
subordinate healthcare services, they are provided with private health insurance. 11.3 Australian
people who make up the 47% of the total population were issued with private insurance cover
and 13.3 Australian people which are 56% had applied for general treatment cover in 2015
(Lingam (2013). The government also intervened the private health patient by assisting in
reducing the burden in some severe diseases. The national government paid for a certain
percentage of the private patient hospital bills. The key reason for the standardization of
healthcare in Australia is enhanced by the government through interventions in hospital bills of
both private and general patient. Through healthcare infrastructure improvement by both the
territory and central government has led to the ease of people of Australia in assessing the
medical services. The Australian healthcare sector which is referred to as the Health Council
plays the role of providing a forum of service delivery and regulation on both primary and
secondary health issues also considering the cost issues (Whitty, & Littlejohns, (2015). The drug
usage in Australia can be used as a measure of the regulatory intervention and in providing
pharmaceutical analysis guideline.
The types of medicine consumed

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The distribution of medicine and prescription is controlled by the government
subsidization schemes such Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Repatriation
Pharmaceutical Scheme (RPBS) (Johnston, & Bruzsa, (2013), March). The Australian
medication has been divided into two forms; prescribed and non- prescribed form. The
prescribed forms involve the medical officer or the professional instructions and advice for their
usage. Some examples of the prescribed medication include pain relievers, blood pressure and
heart problem medications. The non- prescribed form of medication in Australia are the ones that
do not require proceedings from any professional pieces of advice and they include; minerals,
vitamins and herbal medications (Lowe Plummer& Boyd. 2013). According to the rules of the
Therapeutic Goods Act 1989, when the new medicine is discovered, it is the responsibility of the
manufacturing company to ensure that the new drug registered and approved before it is availed
to the market. The company then is free to list the new medicine to the PBS for proper supply
and marketing. Examples of the most commonly used medicine in Australia are; Amoxicillin,
Esomeprazole, Pantoprazole, (Paracetamol, Atorvastatin and, perindopril MacLellan (Higgins, &
Levett‐Jones,2015).
Conclusion
The government support and intervention in the health sector of Australia have led
the sprouting of good reliable healthcare services to the people. There is a need of improving on
cost and production of quality medicine by ensuring the effective laws of price and product
regulation to the manufactures. The level of cost standardization is low and should be
implemented with immediate effect. The PBS faces challenges as some of their products are
restricted and require preauthorization from Medicare registration center. Another problem arises
in the field of prices where there is disagreement among the producing institution. There is the

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weakness in terms of efficiency in the post-market surveillance and a lot is to be done to alter
this. Problems that arise when there are weaknesses in incentives in the manufacturer's line of
pricing agreement this may result in the production of low-quality medicines (Vitry, Shin, &
Vitre, (2013). Discovery of new generic medicines to the market do influences prices of the
medicines and unless a rule is set this will be a usual challenge Equity has to be ensured as co-
payment brings about an inequality challenge in the PBS products. There is a need for
standardization of cost-effectiveness according to the government regulation policy on PBS.
Some studies sectors that are sponsored by some pharmaceutical producers may exaggerate the
result by favoring the sponsoring organizations. (Sedal, Wilson, & McDonald, (2014)

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References
Cashin, A. (2014). Collaborative arrangements for Australian nurse practitioners: a policy
analysis. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 26(10), 550-554.
Cashin, A., Stasa, H., Dunn, S. V., Pont, L., & Buckley, T. (2014). Nurse practitioner prescribing
practice in Australia: Confidence in aspects of medication management. International
journal of nursing practice, 20(1), 1-7.
Janamian, T., Crossland, L., & Wells, L. (2016). On the road to value co-creation in health care:
the role of consumers in defining the destination, planning the journey and sharing the
drive. The Medical Journal of Australia, 204(7), 12.
Johnston, M., & Bruzsa, L. (2013, March). Development of an innovative steerable double
extendable trailer under performance based standards (PBS). In International Conference
on Heavy Vehicles HVParis 2008 (pp. 97-108). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Lingam, V. (2013). Community pharmacy reforms in A ustralia. International Journal of
Pharmacy Practice, 21(4), 273-274.
Lowe, G., Plummer, V., & Boyd, L. (2013). Nurse practitioner roles in Australian healthcare
settings. Nursing Management (through 2013), 20(2), 28.
Mellish, L., Karanges, E. A., Litchfield, M. J., Schaffer, A. L., Blanch, B., Daniels, B. J., ... &
Pearson, S. A. (2015). The Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme data collection: a
practical guide for researchers. BMC research notes, 8(1), 634.

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MacLellan, L., Higgins, I., & Levett‐Jones, T. (2015). Medical acceptance of the nurse
practitioner role in Australia: a decade on. Journal of the American Association of Nurse
Practitioners, 27(3), 152-159.
Robertson, J., Walkom, E. J., Bevan, M. D., & Newby, D. A. (2013). Medicines and the media:
news reports of medicines recommended for government reimbursement in Australia.
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multiple sclerosis. Internal medicine journal, 44(10), 950-957.
Vitry, A. I., Shin, N. H., & Vitre, P. (2013). Assessment of the therapeutic value of new
medicines marketed in Australia. Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice, 6(1), 2.
Whitty, J. A., & Littlejohns, P. (2015). Social values and health priority setting in Australia: an
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