Health Inequality and Social Determinants in Australia

This assignment delves into the complex issue of health inequality within Australia. It requires students to analyze various academic articles that explore the impact of social determinants on health outcomes. Key areas of focus include trends in health inequalities, the role of social factors, and policy responses aimed at addressing these disparities. The analysis draws upon sociological theories and empirical research to provide a comprehensive understanding of this critical public health challenge.

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCARE
Importance of social class system in healthcare
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCARE
Social status and healthcare has been related as early as the history has been recorded.
The people who had the proper hold of power used it to bring themselves proper care. Until now,
the association between healthcare and social class has remained strong despite the fact that,
there is an all over growth in the healthcare sector. The main reasons of the health inequality are
the unequal distribution of resources, power and wealth amongst the people.
A recent study showed a harsh fact, which is the 20% of Australia’s poorest population
lives average six years less than the richest 20% (Andrew, 2013). Health can be described as a
complete process which not only the absence of diseases in the body of a person, but also
includes a person’s social, physical and mental well being. The term social status can be defined
as a group of people who holds similar roles in the economic processes.
The aim of writing this essay is to discuss and examine the relationship between the
social statuses of people with healthcare inequalities. The purpose of the essay is to establish a
relationship between the social factors and the healthcare system. The essay will also discuss
how power and social strata/ hierarchy can influence the healthcare system.
One can simply describe sociology as the study of understanding the basic approaches of
human society. It brings about a scientific approach towards several facts about society such as
the social change and development, the relationship between an individual and the society and
the concept of society, which shapes their beliefs and behavior in the long term (Ogden, 2012).
Two major theories of perspective can be used to discuss the social inequalities in health
and healthcare system. These theories of perspective are namely, structural functionalism and
Marxism. The structural functionalism theory explains poverty according to the context of
unequal reward distribution amongst the social groups according to social stratification (Bourke

2IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCARE
et al., 2012). The unequal reward distribution is because, it is assumed that some social groups
have less skills and knowledge than the other groups and their contribution to the society is
relatively lesser. The functionalist approach says that the society maintains its stability. The
sociologist who supports this process has outlined a behavior pattern for the people who are
considered as sick. They call it the sick role. They think not too many people must fall into the
criteria of falling sick. If they do, it will affect the social responsibility equilibrium. Usually the
sick people calls out for their social responsibility as they stay at home and seek care. The people
who are not sick have to get out of home and continue the daily schedule (Cockerham, 2014). If
a person refuses to consult a doctor to follow up the professional advice, it can be said that the
person is not sick. (Craig, Bejan, & Muskat, 2013)According to the functionalist approach,
falling sick is not fully a biological process. People fell sick to maintain the continuity in the
society and maintains others role in the society. The physician’s works as the gatekeeper in this
concept as the doctor’s role is to check that if the person is really sick. If the person is really sick,
the physician has to play a role to make them get better. It is up to the decision of the person that
to follow the all the instructions given by the doctor (Thomas, 2012).
The Marxist theory explains the social class system according to the capitalist economic
production system. The Marxist approach describes food, clothing and shelter as the basic
approach for living. The other production of commodities is regarded as capitalism. According to
Marx, production of anything also involves social relations, which cause division of labor that
reflects the different social classes living in the society (Badland et al., 2014). This capitalist
economic division influences the health outcomes of common people at two different levels.
Firstly, health is very much affected in the production level either directly or indirectly such as
through stress and industrial injuries. The process of commodity production gives rise to many

3IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCARE
harmful pollutants, which pollutes the environment, and the long term consumption of these
commodities comes with long term health consequence. Secondly, health is directly influenced
by the distribution of income and wealth that directly influences people’s standard of living. It
determines their access to healthcare, educational opportunities, diet and their recreation.
Social determinants theory states that the social determinants like the income, public policies and
other health related services are not equally distributed among the varying social statuses. The
social inequalities also harm the health of the people who come from the backward community.
This theory categorizes different levels of factors that are responsible for the deterioration of the
health. The external factors of these levels include the socio-economic and the environmental
condition in which the people reside and the internal factors like the genetic factors and the
physical condition. The theory provides the necessity of the social upgradation to reduce the
healthcare inequalities and the achievement of these purposes by adopting various information
and communication technologies between these people and the healthcare providers.
The perspective of the specific determinants is that the effects and cause of the health care
inequalities are mainly indirect and expose an individual to risk factors that are unknown and
cause serious harm to the individual. The incomplete awareness of the effects that are harmful to
the health are significantly typical to the lower level of the social status.
There is another perspective, which is called the conflict perspective is another approach
which states that, the best way to understand the social behavior is to understand the tension
between the groups over the power. The social tension happens over the allocation of resources
like money, house, service and political resources. The social tension leads the higher society
wealthy people to get better access to have better healthcare treatment than the less fortunate

4IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCARE
people. The people who are from the less fortunate background are more likely to fall sick
because of their lifestyle. When they fall ill, it is very difficult for them to get better faster. In
some of the poor countries, there is no access for a hurried healthcare treatment. .
The biomedical model of health psychology is the quick fix approach as it focuses on the
biological aspect of illness and disease. The primary approach of healthcare in Australia is the
biomedical model. This approach has been dominant in Australia for most if the twentieth
century and still receives most of the healthcare funding. The biomedical approach attempts to
return the person to the pre-illness stage. The advanced medical technologies are very important
in the biomedical model. This model has many advantages. This model helped creating advances
in aspect of technology and research. As the biomedical model is the earliest approach of
healthcare, there would be no advances in the healthcare technology without this model. There
would be no antibiotics, X-ray or anesthetics without the biomedical model. The biomedical
model paved the way for the medical science to treat the illnesses. The biomedical model
extended the life expectancy of the people, as many common causes of death are not a threat as
of now. These conditions can now be cured with the advantages of medical studies. The
biomedical model is essential to describe the recent advantages of healthcare and medicine but
this model does not relate to the impact of power and social hierarchy on healthcare (Bleich et
al., 2012).
The social model of healthcare address the broader influences such as social, economic,
environmental and cultural focuses. The social model of health psychology suggests that illness
is caused by the combination of multiple factors such as biological (for example virus, bacteria),
psychological (for example stress, behavior, believe, pain) and social (social class and
employment). The social aspects depend on the social norms of behavior (Cockerham, 2013).

5IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCARE
According to the social model, the individual is not regarded as the passive victim as illness is
believed as the combination of multiple factors. The health psychology suggests that, the whole
person should be treated to treat the illness. Treatment includes the influence to the person to
change the behavior and coping strategy. The health psychology believes that the mind and the
body of a person work at an interactive fashion. This model helps to recognize the relationship
between the health status and the proverbial social determinants of health (Klima, Janiszewska,
& Mordwa, 2014).
The socio-economical status is directly related to access of the quality preventive care
with higher competency and technology. The poorer group of people still lives in houses with
unhygienic and crowded houses with polluted air and water. They suffer from malnutrition
because of the inadequate supply of nutritious food and other environmental deficits. The people
who lives on the lowest strata of economical condition, also suffers from psychological issues as
they works in such jobs which is lowest paid and they experience issues like unemployment and
work injury. The lower class people also suffer from some poor lifestyle choices like smoking,
lack of exercise and alcoholism (Porter, 2013).
Whereas the powerful people who have the money to afford the latest medical care and
have enough money to afford healthy lifestyle, does not suffer this consequences. If this people
fall prey of the poor lifestyle choices, they can afford potential medical treatment and live more.
The social structure also focuses towards the people who live upside of the social strata, and the
availability of healthcare gets easier to them. The privatization of healthcare is a reason to this
cause. The upper strata people can buy themselves every possible healthcare as possible. The
people with lower socio-economical condition, buys such goods which affects their health
negatively (Hatzenbuehler, Phelan, & Link, 2013). They work in a poor working condition,

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which directly affects their health. From these statements, it can be said that social hierarchy and
power does influence healthcare. Both the Marxist perspective and conflict perspective tells us
about the division of power and social class amongst people. From both the perspective, one can
learn that the people with higher social hierarchy and power can get better lifestyle and
healthcare choices. The Marxist perspective said that the capitalism is the root of the conflict that
produces all the tensions. This type of inequality can be seen all over the world. The poor people
do not even get the proper healthcare when needed. It is also because there are places in
Australia where the residents are dependent on the local primary healthcare clinic and the nearest
hospital is more than 500 km far. The people who live there are the people on the lower social
strata and are not able to get required facility when needed (Korda et al., 2007).
There is also shortage of healthcare professional working in the rural areas. This problem
can be seen in the whole world. Every healthcare professional wants to work in an area where
healthcare equipments are available. Because of this, the rural people are getting sicker day by
day. Another reason of poor health in rural community is the shortage of education and health
information. They also have bad access to the competent healthcare than the urban area (Alanazi,
& Alanzi, 2013). There are much evidence that shows the unequal distribution of doctors and
nurses in the rural areas. Even until this day, the condition of the distribution is worsening. Some
researches tried to identify some of the factors that influence the young healthcare professional to
practice in the rural areas. The government also has to understand the unequal distribution and
work on to improvement in this area. The government also has to determine the best models for
practicing in various settings. To eliminate the inequality, development of healthcare sector in
village area is necessary (Turrell, & Mathers, 2001).

7IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCARE
All the theories lead to the concept of inequality in every context. Most of the theories
states that proper lifestyle and healthcare choices are for the few people who lives in the proper
social hierarchy. The people who live at the top of the social hierarchy can afford the healthy
lifestyle choices. They use their wealth and political influence to make their life as easy as
possible. In Australia, many elders want to spend their last days at an old age home (Baum et al,
2014). The old age homes in Australia are mostly situated in somewhat within the range of
modern healthcare facility but in a place with natural beauty. Many people are now making
business by providing the upper class and middleclass elders with companionship, medication,
treatment and residential facilities. However, affording this facility also needs money and not
every class of people can afford that even if they wanted to (Kenny et al, 2013). The rich and the
powerful people is making their way even in this case as the old age care homes are targeting the
people with a range of income. The government policy should be strict about healthcare to make
sure that people from every strata and income get more or less the same opportunities. Of course
the people with higher social hierarchy will receive the latest and the best treatment as possible,
but the vision of the government and also the people should be to provide the underprivileged
with as good treatment as possible. It is necessary that they get care when they need it the most
(Duckett, & Willcox, 2015).
The essay discusses the influence of social hierarchy and power over the aspect of
healthcare. In this essay, the sociological theories are explained to make the readers understand
the aspect and appraisal of social hierarchies. Three social theories of perspectives are discussed
namely, the old-school functionalist perspective, relatively new Marxist perspective the newer
conflict perspective. The biomedical model of healthcare is discussed to understand the
healthcare system in Australia. It is evident that the privileged people with political influence,

8IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCARE
money and power get the higher standard of healthcare. The unequal standard of society leads
the underprivileged to work in bad environmental condition, eat bad quality food and stress. The
underprivileged do not even get the required medical attention in time, especially those who lives
in the rural area. There is even a shortage of hospital, doctors and competent nurses in Australia.
To conclude that, it’s the social hierarchy and power, this directs the healthcare market in
Australia.

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References:
Alanazi, M. R., & Alanzi, M. M. (2013) Critical Review of Different Sociological Perspectives
toward Conceptualization of Management of Health Services.
Andrew, L. (2013). Battlers and Billionaires: The Story of Inequality in Australia
Redback. Collingwood, VIC Australia.
Badland, H., Whitzman, C., Lowe, M., Davern, M., Aye, L., Butterworth, I., ... & Giles-Corti, B.
(2014). Urban liveability: emerging lessons from Australia for exploring the potential for
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64-73.
Baum, F. E., Laris, P., Fisher, M., Newman, L., & MacDougall, C. (2013). “Never mind the
logic, give me the numbers”: Former Australian health ministers' perspectives on the
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Craig, S. L., Bejan, R., & Muskat, B. (2013). Making the invisible visible: Are health social
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