Health Care Delivery and Reform

Running head: HEALTH CARE DELIVERY AND REFORM 1
Health care delivery and reform
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HEALTH CARE DELIVERY AND REFORM 2
Healthcare delivery and reform
Introduction
Health is a term that denotes the state of being free from illness and experiencing good
conditions physically, mentally and socially. All the biological systems are capable of acquiring,
converting, allocating, distributing and utilizing energy with maximum efficiency. Health care on
the other hand is the management and handling well the health in humankind via protection ,
finding out, medication of the illness, infections, injuries, and any other physical and mental
problems in individuals(Notoatmodjo et al, 2018). The organization responsible for provision of
the health is known as health system which aims at delivering effective services in order to meet
the health need of target groups (Zhao et al, 2017). This paper will give a detailed report
comparing and contrasting the different health systems of Australia, United Kingdom and United
states.
The health system in Australia
To start with is the Australian health system. The health care system of the Australia is known as
Medicare (medical care).Medicare was introduced in 1984 with an aim of helping citizens to
access free treatment in public hospitals as well as giving subsidy to medical services
(Shephard, 2018) . Medicare provides access to multiple of medical services and on top low cost
medications. Medicare gets financial aid from commonwealth health insurance organization is in
a position to provide health care to the citizens without charging for the services as well as low
cost health services to all citizens of Australia. The delivery of healthcare services is as a result
of the Australian health care agreements (Chambers et al, 2011).

HEALTH CARE DELIVERY AND REFORM 3
Structure of the health system in Australia
On the side of the structure of the Australia health care system it has got several essential types
such as primary health care which general entails the first encounter of the patient with health
care system. It deals with care that does not necessarily involve treatment instead it consist of a
range of practices like making health efficient, protection, dealing with early infections that has
not advanced, medication of acute predicaments, and maintenance of chronic states. It has got
different categories of services it delivers ranging from prevention to health promotion activities
(Guajardo et al, 2018). Early health care is availed in a different categories such as general
practices where the individual seek treatment of less serious diseases, also in health centers
which are mostly located within the community to enable the individuals to easily access the
centers. In addition is also online consultations via programs known as communication
technology where videos are sent and people can follow the guidelines in them. Different
healthcare services are conducted by professionals like nurses who mostly take part in
monitoring the patient in hospitals. Dentist on the other hand deals with tooth problems and
giving education on how to take care of the tooth.
Another branch that has the mandate to offer health care is primary health networks which work
together with other primary health care providers. It aims at improving the efficiency as well as
the effectiveness of the medical services provided to the patients. Others include the secondary
health services, hospitals and also local hospital networks (Watts et al, 2018). Australia
experience an efficient health care from Medicare system providing merit to all population
groups. Research shows that health system of Australia emphasizes more on prevention which is
widely viewed as a good action that should be adopted by Australian citizens. It helps to shun the

HEALTH CARE DELIVERY AND REFORM 4
infections before they get attack to a person. Taking measures that assist in evading diseases is a
beneficial way to minimize funds spending in provision of medical care. In Freeman’s theory of
prevention he argues that prevention policy is the best option.
Function of Medicare in Australia in provision of health care
Medicare focuses on providing uniform health coverage for both permanent residents and
Australian citizens. Since it receives funding from the government there is a proposal from the
government of establishing a co-payment policy that requires the individuals to pay for the
services they are given (Reddel et al, 2018). Initially Medicare offered a free medical care to all
individuals within the Australia. All sorts of treatment are found in Medicare system and
therefore it needs money for both research and for paying the doctors who work in the hospitals
(Frank et al, 2017).Private hospital also exists and provides health care too on the basis of
payment of the service offered.
Co-payment policy in Australia
Government come up with a co-payment policy in the year 2014-2015 (Jacups, et al, 2018). The
policy was ridiculed and had a lot of mockery from various groups. However, government had
put forward the co-payment policy in order to make good grounds for Medicare system and
provide full support to make it sustainable as well as have better management. Co-payment
policy also aimed at saving the funds from the government so that health system can keep
running in an economical way (Liu et al, 2018). The policy aimed at increasing income for
doctor which could otherwise enhance retaining of doctor within Australia and hence minimize
the unnecessary visit to doctors outside Australia (Wineinger, et al, 2018). Both time and
resources may go onto waste in the process.