Strengths and Weaknesses of the Australian Healthcare System

This essay investigates the strengths and weaknesses of the Australian healthcare system, with a focus on Medicare. It discusses the advantages of Medicare, such as increased access to care and low-cost prescriptions, as well as its weaknesses, including rising costs and inequality in access to Medicare Benefits Schedule. The essay proposes a solution to improve the system by reducing expenditure on unnecessary health procedures and inputs.

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Australian Healthcare System
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Australian Healthcare System
Introduction
The Australian healthcare system consists of both public and private hospitals. Public
hospitals are owned and supervised by the state and territory governments while private hospitals
are owned and operated by private organizations. Medicare is the main characteristic of the
health system, and it allows beneficiaries to access a variety of free health services. This essay
will investigate the strength and weakness of Medicare and propose a solution that can be used to
improve the healthcare system.
The strength of Australian Healthcare System
The main strength of the Australian healthcare system is Medicare. Medicare funds
universal access to health care for Australians in all public hospitals. Specifically, Medicare
covers several services for free or at a small fee including access to doctors, specialist,
optometrists, dentists and a range of other medical professionals. Besides, Medicare allows
eligible persons to access to low-cost prescriptions. Another advantage of Medicare is that it
offers several benefits for private patients. For instance, a private patient can get up to 75%
refund of the Medicare Schedule charges for treatment and services (Humanservices.gov, 2017).
Medicare has increased the access to care by aged adults significantly. Medicare has improved
Primary Health Care (PHC) in Australia leading to more hospital visits and reduction in the cost
of care in rural areas. Remote communities have access to high-quality PHC, the number of
general practitioners (GPs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) has increased in remote areas due to
funding through Medicare. As a result, there is equitable service delivery (Wakerman et al.,
2017).

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The weakness of Australian Healthcare System
Even though Medicare is important to the Australian healthcare system, it is also a
fundamental weakness. Medicare is a weakness due to several elements including the cost,
inequality, and Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS). The cost of Medicare has been increasing
progressively, yet the quality of health has not been increasing. In 2014, it was forecasted that
the costs of Medicare would increase from $56 billion to $75 billion annually (Biggs, 2014).
Besides, there is inequality in access to MBS across Australia. Based on recent research,
Australians in remote areas have lower MBS expenditure (Angell et al., 2017).
How can the Australian Healthcare System be improved
A feasible solution is a reduction or elimination of public subsidies where they are
unjustified by the government. Australia's health care system produces good results through
Medicare, but certain parts of the system need improvement. Australia is spending significantly
on health procedures such as medicines, tests, and procedures. Some of these procedures might
are irrelevant and justifiable. Evidently, health care spending has been growing faster than the
country’s economy. In the between 2012 and 2013, health expenditure grew by an average of 4.7
% each year (Pc.gov, 2015). If the Australian government does not take enough measures to
address its expenditure on the healthcare system, equality and quality might not be achieved
through Medicare.
Conclusion
As evident in this paper, Medicare is a key strength in the Australian healthcare system
because it increases access to care for both indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
However, Medicare increases healthcare expenditure and might lead to health inequalities. The

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government can improve the healthcare system by cutting expenditure on unnecessary or less
essential health procedures and inputs.

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References
Angell, B. et al. (2017). Healthcare expenditure on Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians at
high risk of cardiovascular disease. International journal for equity in health, 16(1),
p.108.
Biggs, A. (2014). How much does Medicare cost? [Online] Available at:
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/
Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2014/February/How-much-Medicare-cost [Accessed 4
July 2018].
Humanservices.gov. (2017). Medicare services. [Online] Available at:
https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/subjects/medicare-services [Accessed 8
April 2018].
Pc.gov. (2015). Improving Australia's health system: what we can do now. [Online] Available at:
http://www.pc.gov.au/news-media/pc-news/previous-editions/pc-news-may-2015/
improving-australia-health-system [Accessed 7 April 2018].
Wakerman, J. et al. (2017). Equitable resourcing of primary health care in remote communities
in Australia’s Northern Territory: a pilot study. BMC family practice, 18(1), p.75.