Factors influencing Utilization of Health Care

RUNNING HEADER: FACTORS INFLUENCING UTILIZATION OF HEALTH CARE 1
Factors influencing Utilization of Health Care
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Factors influencing Utilization of Health Care 2
Introduction
Globally, people are facing challenges in accessing health care services due to significant needs
for health care, which are often not adequately met (Ma, Chan & Loke, 2017). To increase the
quality of human life, policy makers and providers of healthcare need to understand why
individuals exploit or do not exploit health care services better. The environment globally is
facing a myriad of challenges in terms of population growth, higher medical care demand,
increased health problems, medical technologies advancements, and expenditure on health care
(Hornborg & Crumley, 2016). As a result, governments’ most challenging objective is health
care financing, particularly in developing countries.
In Australia, the underlying principle for health care is parity to universal access to most of the
health care irrespective of their ability to pay (Armstrong et al., 2007). Australia has been able to
achieve this as most health care systems are funded from taxation thereby promoting access to
health system equity. The Australian health care system explores the concept of equal access in
relation to efficiency and effectiveness (Healy, 2016). Most developing countries have their
source of health care finances subjugated by the private sector as households’ payment from their
pockets (Jayachandran, 2015). Australia’s universal health care system, Medicare, subsidies most
medical costs in Australia. However, in remote areas such as the Northern State, access to health
care is very difficult. Residents are forced to bear the cost of traveling and time to access health
services.
Reforms are therefore necessary to involve more people in the scheme (Thill, 2015).
Policymakers, therefore, need to comprehend the behaviors and factors which affect health care
utilization in a bid to improve the service quality to attract more people to enroll in the scheme.

Factors influencing Utilization of Health Care 3
Analyzing the factors of utilization of health care among private workers who are insured will
provide a clear picture of who pays and who gets to benefit from the scheme.
Research questions
 What are the determinants of utilization of health care among private workers who are
insured under Medicare in Australia?
 What are the barriers of accessing health care services for private workers who are
insured under Medicare in Australia?
Research Objectives
 To identify the determinants of utilization of health care among private workers who are
insured under Medicare, Australia.
 To identify the barriers for private workers who are insured to access health services
under Medicare in Australia.
The scope of the study
The study will focus on private workers who are insured under Medicare in the Northern
Territory in Australia. The participants will be currently employed by privately owned firms. The
data will be collected from January to March 2019.
Literature review
Curtis & MacMinn (2008) carried out a study in Canada that concerned the utilization of health
care in 25 years of evidence in identifying the association between utilization and status of socio-
economy, demographic characteristics and controlling. The research described the pattern of
utilization of health care under the insurance scheme of public health. The investigation was