Medicare Services in Australia: Overview, Critique and Improvement

Running Head: MARKETING
0
Welfare systems and Services in Australia
7/20/2019

MARKETING
1
Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................... 2
Overview of Medicare services....................................................................................... 2
Critique on the Medicare services.................................................................................... 3
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 4
References................................................................................................................ 5

MARKETING
2
Introduction
The report brings about the discussion on the concept of Medicare services in context
to Australia and the related aspects. It is referred to the healthcare system that aims to ensure
best care services to the individuals living in the country. The discussion will provide the
background of the service system, and determine the effective performance (Dixit &
Sambasivan, 2018). Moreover, the report will describe the target clients or group of the
service system. In the later part, the essay will critique the Medicare service system and the
ways for the improvement in the future years.
Overview of Medicare services
Medicare is the universal healthcare system publicly funded in the Australia, has been
referred as the primary funder of health care. The function or aim of Medicare is to fund the
access to the healthcare in two main ways. The first is the medical benefits scheme that
provides benefit for the people i.e. out of the hospital medical services, inclusive of the
general practitioner and other services from specialist. Medicare ensures availability of the
health care services to the Australian and New Zealand citizens, and other permanent
residents in Australia (Australian Department of Human services, 2018).
Therefore, the aim of Medicare is to ensure free or low cost medical, midwifery, or
hospital care in certain circumstances. Medicare in Australia is financed through a two per
cent levy on the most of the Australian taxpayers. Medicare Australia is generally responsible
for administering the Medicare that works to provide subsidies for healthcare services. It
deals with the aspect of payment of the doctors, health professional and nursing staff, and the
financing of the state-run hospitals (Freed & Allen, 2019). This enhances the working and
effective management in the healthcare to ensure e high quality services to the patients. Thus,
Medicare is funded by an income tax surcharge, known as Medicare levy that is considered
2% of an individual’s taxable income.
Additionally, the main contribution of the Medicare services has been understood as it
covers costs and ensures low burden of the treatment on the patient. The amount paid by
Medicare includes, the patient health costs based on the Medicare benefits schedule.
Specifically, Medicare involves 100% of the schedule fee in respect to general practitioners,
85% of the specialists. It also covers other remaining services if the private patient has been