Economic Analysis For Business

Running head: ECONOMIC ANALYSIS FOR BUSINESS
Economic Analysis For Business
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1ECONOMIC ANALYSIS FOR BUSINESS
Introduction
Australia possesses an institutionally settled publicly funded healthcare system known as
Medicare that is guided by the principle of ‘universal accesses’. The system aims to enable all
Australian residents a subsidized medical treatment from different healthcare professionals such
as Doctors, medical specialists and others related to this field. This allows Australians to have
access to free treatment in public hospitals (Macri, 2016). The health care system in Australia
has a relatively complex structure. Funding and other responsibilities related to healthcare are
shared between territory, state and federal government. The essay evaluates benefit of Medicare
system to all Australian and examines sustainability of the Medicare system in view of rising
cost of healthcare.
Benefit of Medicare to Australians
Medicare in Australia aims to provide a wide range of health care service to people at
free of costs. The Medicare supports health care system in two main ways. The first is through
Medical Benefits Scheme. This benefits Australians in the following ways
 Covered cost for medical service offered outside the hospital including cost of general
practitioner and different special service
 Some selected diagnostic and pathology service
 Dental care for children but only in limited circumstances
 Eye checks
 Allied health services in limited cases
 Medical service to the private patients in public and private hospitals (this excludes cost
of accommodation, medicines and theatre fees).

2ECONOMIC ANALYSIS FOR BUSINESS
Under Medicare, the benefits offered to Patients generally covered 85 percent of the fess for
the listed services in Medicare Benefits Scheme (theconversation.com, 2014). Another channel
through which Medicare support national health care system is Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
All Australians are covered under the universal, tax-financed, national health insurance
scheme Medicare offering rebates against the total medical fees. . All Australians are eligible for
having free treatment in public hospitals. About 80 percent of General Practitioners’ fees are no
out of pocket expense as government directly bear the cost. The problem however is that doctors
can charge any amount that they want having no upper limit on fees (Duckett, 2017). The out of
pocket expense that is not covered under Medicare thus remain a significant problem. Many
people delay in visiting doctors because of high out of pocket expense.
Figure 1: Australians who delayed or did not visit doctors because of high cost
(Source: Duckett, 2017)
Despite its attempts to cover all Australians under universal health care system, faced
with the funding disputes between state and commonwealth government, Medicare has failed to
deliver timely service to people. Patients often have to wait for a long time for emergency care
and elective surgery. Medicare also does not cover many important medical services, which
include dental, ambulance service, and some allied health services. This is the reason why
despite having access to Medicare nearly half of the Australians have private insurance
(nib.com.au, 2019). The overlapping state of Medicare and private health insurance leads to