THE HEALTH FINANCING

Running head: HEALTH SERVICES FINANCING
HEALTH FINANCING
Name of the Student:
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Introduction
Organizational for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an
association consist of multiple member countries. There are 35 numbers of member countries
associated with the association (Paris et al., 2016). These associations identify and collect
relevant data and assist member countries by providing brief economic growth data. Thus,
letting these member countries know about their priorities areas and strengths. Every year
OECD provides or publishes the relevant information on necessary economic policies that are
required or practice by each member country (Botta & Koźluk, 2014). Australia is one of the
member countries of OECD, and for comparing along with contrasting, this paper would
consider Italy and Germany. This paper intends to examine the comparison between
Australia, Italy and Germany concerning financial structure and financial performance.
Performance Indicators
OECD provides in-depth knowledge of the health status of multiple member
countries. Comparing with the health system of other countries would assist in better analysis
and performance of the Australian health system. Italy and Germany are the member country
of OECD. The major performance indicators consider for comparing these countries are
health status, risk factors, access to care, along with the quality of care and resources. The
Australian health system is performing high in terms of health status that comprises life
expectancy, self-rated health, chronic disease morbidity along with avoidable mortality
(oecd.org, 2019). On the contrary, Italy has also relatively high in health status; however,
Germany is performing poorly in the health system. Germany has a higher rate of chronic
disease morbidity. The second performance indicator is risk factors that include smoking,
alcohol, obese, along with air pollution. The Australian health system has moderate risk
factors as there are low rates of smokers, and air pollution is relatively low; however, the rate

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of obesity and alcohol is high. On the contrary, Germany is poorly performing in the risk
factors, and Italy is performing better in obese and alcohol; however, smoker rates and air
pollution is high. Access to care in the Australian health system is good as it covers
population with effective financial schemes and support. On the contrary, Italy is also
performing effectively in access to care along with Germany (oecd.org, 2019). The
Australian health system is lacking in primary care and safe prescribing comparing to
Germany, they are practicing safe prescribing. Italy is also performing low in safe
prescribing. The Australian health system has adequate resources, including health spending,
healthcare professionals that are similar to Germany; however, Italy is facing issues at a low
rate of practicing nursing professionals.
Challenges
As per oecd.org (2019), effective analysis based on performance indicators, the
Australian health system is better than Germany and Italy; however, there are some
limitations and challenges the health system is facing. The first challenge is poor primary
care service, and the Australian health system needs to invest in strengthening primary care
as it is the initial point of contact among care seekers and care providers. However, it is also
important to note that Australian acute health services are stronger. Also, they have a larger
share of budget allocation for primary care activities than most of the OECD countries.
However, the quality of primary care needs to be improved. Another major challenge that the
Australian health system is facing is the higher rate of obesity. It has been estimated that
around 65 percent of Australian adults are obese or overweight, along with 36 percent of
children are obese. Besides, it is also estimated that the rate of obesity would keep increasing
in the coming years. Thus, these obese may lead to many diseases such as strokes, heart
attacks, or diabetes. Therefore, the Australian health system needs to pay more attention to
reducing the rate of obesity. Although there are a multiple numbers of policies and

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regulations proposed by the government bodies, further necessary additional action is needed,
and an effective source of funds is needed.
Major challenges faced in Germany were a poor number of healthcare professionals.
There are 12.9 nursing professionals per 1000 population. The health activity or visiting the
healthcare setting are also high as compare to the average rate of OECD or other member
countries. This higher activity would increase the pressure on healthcare professionals and
also the discharge rate is also high, which also makes it the most inpatient health activity.
Another challenge that Germany faces is the increasing rate of an unhealthy lifestyle. It has
been found that the people residing in Germany consume high rate alcohol comparing to the
other member countries of OECD. Besides, around 19 per cent of adults smoked daily. Thus,
people are overweight and obese; 60 per cent of adults are overweight in Germany (oecd.org,
2019).
Major challenges in Italy is a higher rate of the ageing population. Higher life
expectancy is often considered as a positive health outcome; however, with an increased
ageing population, there is a need and demand for healthcare settings or aged care services.
Besides, people who have dementia is also increasing. Twenty-three people in Italy have
dementia per 1000 population (oecd.org, 2019). Therefore, they lack effective team-based
primary health care. Another major challenge is the higher prescription of antibiotics.
Excessive usage of antibiotics is often causing multiple adverse effects (Branche et al., 2019).
It was found that average prescribed antibiotics were 28 defined daily doses per 1000
population which were per day. Financial funding should be made available in the
formulation of policies that would limit the prescription of the antibiotics.

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Financial implication
In Australia, the total spending is around $81.8 billion in the health system. This
budget involves the entire multiple services in the health sector. The major issues in the
Australian health system were high-risk factors and poor quality of care. The budget or
funding must be made according to attending the issues in the Australian health system. The
health funding has funded around $1.3 billion in the hospital service, along with $7.4 billion
in health services. These funds would effectively focus on the quality of care and improves
the quality of primary care. For particular elimination of risk factors funding is not
mentioned; however, the general administration sector has been funded with $3.2 billion
(Aph.gov.au, 2020).
On the contrary to Germany, the major challenges or issues are limited or scarcity of
healthcare professionals, especially nursing professionals, and high rate of an unhealthy
lifestyle that has also impacted on morbidity (oecd.org, 2019). The consumption of alcohol
and the number of smokers is higher compared to other OECD countries like Italy. It has
been found that the total number of healthcare professionals is 4.1 per 1000 people or
patients, which is relatively low. Germany is spending around 11 percent of total GDP in the
healthcare sectors. Further, 21 percent of German people smoke (Blümel, & Busse, 2015).
The health system is funded with both government bodies and other payers such as insurance
agencies or patients.
Italy's major issues are unable to prepare the health system against the continual
increase of the ageing population. The country has almost the second largest dementia,
comparing to entire OECD member countries (Di Fiandra et al., 2015). Another major
challenge is inappropriate prescribing antibiotics medicines. The side effects of the antibiotics
are well known, and it is important to know that it may also impact on the burden of health
funding. Italy has a funding system of tax-funded National Health Service. Italy is facing a

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budget deficit from the government bodies. It was found that 8.8 percent of total GDP was
allocated in the health (International.commonwealthfund.org, 2020).
Recommendation
The major recommendation for the development of the Australian healthcare system
is that the formulating of effective policies regarding the risk factors. The funds or the budget
should be allocated on the awareness programs of multiple health risk factors that would
result in reducing diseases that are caused due to such risk factors. From the financial
perspective, the specific fund is not mentioned for eliminating or addressing the risk factors
of health. Therefore, it is recommended for the Australian health system to implement the
risk factors as the major indicator or priority areas while formulating the funds or allocating
the health budget. With comparing with Italy and Germany, the healthcare system of
Australian is better as the health funding in Australia is larger than those countries.
The Australian health system needs to create a campaign or held seminars that would
focus on the risks of obesity or overweights. These seminars or workshops should also
provide relevant information towards the approaches to overcome from overweight with the
help of training or any related activities. Policies formulated must be circulated and deliver
effectively to find positive outcomes among Australian individuals.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded as the Australian healthcare system is
better than multiple other countries. OECD would examine along with analyse every
information of member countries in understanding their strength as well as weaknesses.
Multiple performance indicators have been discussed that results in analysing the Australian
health system have found that their major issues in the health sector are increasing rates of
health risks such as obesity or overweights. In addition to this, the Australian health system is

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lacking in providing quality primary care services to the people and the community as a
whole.

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References
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