1UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME NationalorGovernmentalbasedpolicies,strategies,andplansofactionsplaya significant role in framing the health care system of any country. The health system aligned policies is designated to promote the improvement and maintenance of the health status of the population groups. Thus, in this aspect, UBI (Univeral Basic Income) is another potent and significant aspect that has come into foreplay. It is defined as unconditional income granted to eachcitizen,irrespectiveofworkcriteria.Therefore,itsimpactintermsofeconomic improvement has been a major say. In the Australian forefront, Health care and Economy are being two of the most important and necessary conditions that have been dealt with utmost impetus. Moreover, the policies and plans for imparting health care, are in accordance with the various overlying reasons or factors that influence Health. Among them, social determinants of Health (such as social background, economic background, income status, employment facilities, education),andmostspecifically,IncomeandEmploymentissuesdirectlyinfluencethe government to formulate the strategic plans and actions concerning health and health-related issues. This study will emancipate the role of UBI, in relation to the federal government-led health policies and health care system. It will also emphasize the impact of income as the basic or primary social indicator of Health, and its link with the other prevalent social indicators that act as a primary key to the different health status across the Australian population.
2UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME TheGovernment of Australiais based on the framework of afederalparliamentaryand constitutional system that works through the unified as well as a stratified mode of functioning of states and the central power.It is also commonly known as or referred to as theAustralian government, theCommonwealth Government, or theFederal Government. All the legislative and decisive actions, directed for the welfare of the nation, are taken by the representatives of the government. The government pays ample impetus to the role of different resources in nurturing the wellbeing of the population. Thus, in this context, the matter of improving the economic status and accessibility, as well as the consequent health facilities, comes to the forefront. So, the question arises, What is Basic Income and How it comes to foreplay concerning the Australian federal government? As the term is defined, it is a periodic cash payment, on the part of the government, which is being given to all the citizens of a population, irrespective of the socio- economic and employment status(Mays et al .2016).This aspect works, encompassing five characteristics, that includes,Periodic (this involves payment at regular nick of time,such as monthly), Cash Payment (this refers to payment in a suitable form of exchange, and not in kind or food articles), Individual (paid to per person ), Universal (paid to all) and, Unconditional ( this follows payment without a ny validation or requirement to work or work-eagerness). Summatively, the Australian Economy is considerably potent in incurring a stable economic status across the population. Though there are still being incidences of economic inequity or disparity, that has an over-reaching subsequent outcome. As per the recent situation , the Productivity Commission has thoughtfor introducing a comprehensive and far-reaching
3UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME income guarantee scheme or strategic plan for people with severe income or employment anomalies.. This led to the concept of the introduction of a universal basic income, by Australian governments to target benefits to specific categories of people. However, there are ambiguous notions regarding the implementation of this concept From the perspective of Health and Health-related systems,Australiahas a highly developedhealth carestructure. Although because of its vast geographical size, services are not evenly distributed, the significance of the impact of these Health based facilities is considerably high. Health care in Australia comprises of an unified system of both government and private based units. While, the Health care at the governmental level, in Australia , is largely is catered by the governmental funds, or, they are governed by the national, state and local authorities. On the other hand, health care stemming out from private units is mostly based on nohealth insurance,orthecostofhealthcareisimpetizedbyvariousNGOsornot-for-profit organisations. But, still a majortity of the health services related costs are borne by the individual patients or by charitable trusts. Again, in some places, volunteers provides the surface ,it transcended different forms of health facilities to varying areas , especially to remote places, and about the mental health services. The federal government-administered health care system includes the government (state, local or national) imparts the applications ofMedicareinsurance scheme that covers much of the expenses of the basic and other associated care services. Therefore, the Health care unit in Australia works through three categories- the Government (National.StateorLocal)basedprovidingthemajorityoftheseservices,alongwith private(through Medicare) as well as allied health services(Kelehar2019).While the federal government regulates government based primary health care, Private hospitals are a combination of federal and state requirements. The states are responsible for giving the access of imparting
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4UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME health related services to the private hospitals, while the federal government act as a regulator for the private health insurance.The australian health system and the policy framework, has achieved good results with an overall improvement in life expectancy of the population. Also , as per the reports of OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)the expenses related to health. in Australia is about the same as that of the standardized average, which further sheds light on the impact of the health unit and that of the aligned policies.Thus, it can be said that one of the central focus of the federal government of Australia is to minimize the gap between Health and Economy, as the latter is one of the integral Social Determinants of Health (SDHs). The concept of Social determinants of Health exert a signficant impact on the extent of the effectiveness of these health based services and policies. Factors such as income, education, conditions of employment, power and social support, because of their potent roles as the health-determining factors are considered to be the ‘social determinants of health.(Green, Dickinson, and Carey, 2019).The World Health Organization (WHO) has described social determinants as “ the circumstances in which people grow, live, work, and age, and the systems put in place to deal with illness. The conditions in which people live and die are, in turn, shaped by political, social, and economic forces”. Thus , these social factors that affects health can be also considered to be the foundational determinants or as said , the “ causes of the causes ”, as theyset the basis for the core indicators ofhealth(Browne-Yung et al.2018).Thesesocial determinants are an array of the influencing factors present in the vicinity of an individual, that shapes and modulateshealth conditions.Theyare often aligned interchangeably with Socio- Economic Power (SEP)(Browne-Yung et al.2018).The underlying influence of these indicators
5UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME in developing the disease burden among the lower sections of societal groups is indomitably relevant and significant as well. One of the primary parameters of Social IndicatorsisEducational facilities and services. Least exposure to educational aspects and resultant insufficiency of knowledge, which again, might arise due to financial incompetency, are certain mainstream inhibitions present in the vulnerablesections of the population(Parker. 2018).In theAustralian forefront also,less extent of educational attainmentare associated with a higher prevalence of various disease or ailments. This is becauselack of education and knowledge results in a sense of ignorance which further creates room for health anomalies. The second most important factor includes Economicstabilityand Umemploymentplays a crucial rolein shaping up the accessibility to health services. However, people belonging to the low-income group of the Australian population, become susceptible to an income or economic inequity due to improper exposure to betteremployment opportunities.It also, in turn, further drifts thisparticular stratamof the society from a balanced healthy lifestyle. Thisis because, for some,unemployment is an outcome of illness, but for many it is unemployment itself that causes healthproblems.Thus,theratesofunemploymentbearsacumulativeassociationwith educational inaccesiblity or illiteracy , health inaccessibility(Fischer et al.2016),that ultimately exerts a culminating influence on both physical and mental health, Following the economic and employment issues , comes another determinant which is, Healthinequity(Trezona , Fitzsimon and Dodson, 2019)andbehaviouralfactors, This, coupled with subsequent income disparity, creates a huge difference. From the perspective of the low economicgroupoftheAustralianpopulation,reducedincomeincursanimpactonthe
6UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME accessibilityofhealthservicesleadingtoahealthinequityamongtheprivilegedand underprivileged sections.Moreover, this also evokes the mental stress which gets manifested through faulty lifestyle traits – smoking and alcoholism. This,too,further adds on to the lifestyle mediated risk factors and the consequent upsurge in non-communicable diseases. Environmentalaspecs,alongwithHousingfacilities,haveaneffectonequitable distribution of health facilitues through its influence on behavioral factors. Again these factors are also connected to economic stability and consequent employment issues. .For example, poor income and subsequent housing facilities accompanied by the improper environment might arise from income disparity , which in turn affects health and results in health inequity(Robards et al. 2019).Again, Communities and neighbourhoods that promotes the access to basic amenities like food , water , health and sanitation facilities , promotes physical and psychological wellbeing and thereby influence Health. However, despite everything, the predominance of socio-economic imparities such as unemployment, housing insecurity, and their effects on health is still a matter of concern (Robards et al.2019).However, there are still doubts about the impact of Universal Basic Income as a considerable promising strategy for combatting financial instability and to lessen the health gap because of the same. While, as per some perspectives, it is a way out to promote economic equality, on the contrary, there is no validation about the positive effect of this income strategy in reducing health disparities. Therefore, it can be concluded that there exists a correlative link between the social determinants of health and the different strategies formulated by the government for improving health.Over a significant period, the burden of health-related issues and health ailments in the
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7UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME Australian population has been connected to the varying social factors such as lack of education and health illiteracy, unemployment, economic constraints and environmental disparities.Thus, in this aspect, universal basic income was thought of,as one of a potent key to incur public health as well as financial interventions. However, there is still a question about its said implications in health interventions. Although, in spite of this, it can be noted that Health, Social Determinants,ormorespecifically,IncomeandEmployment,andtheImplementing governmental sector is one and integral unit.
8UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME References Browne-Yung,K.,Freeman,T.,Battersby,M.W.,McEvoy,D.R.andBaum,F.,2018. Developing a screening tool to recognise social determinants of health in Australian clinical settings Fisher, M., Baum, F.E., MacDougall, C., Newman, L. and McDermott, D., 2016. To what extent do Australian health policy documents address social determinants of health and health equity?. Journal of Social Policy,45(3), pp.545-564. Green, C., Dickinson, H. and Carey, G., 2019. Policy gaps in addressing social determinants of health for Australians with a disability. Keleher, H., 2019. Primary health care in Australia.Understanding the Australian Health Care System, p.85. Mays, J., Marston, G. and Tomlinson, J. eds., 2016. Basic income in Australia and New Zealand: Perspectives from the neoliberal frontier. Springer. Parker, R., 2018. Health Literacy: Advancing a Social Determinant of Health. Robards, F., Kang, M., Steinbeck, K., Hawke, C., Jan, S., Sanci, L., Liew, Y.Y., Kong, M. and Usherwood,T.,2019.Healthcareequityandaccessformarginalisedyoungpeople:a longitudinal qualitative study exploring health system navigation in Australia.International journal for equity in health,18(1), p.41. Trezona, A., Fitzsimon, E. and Dodson, S., 2019. Health literacy policy in Australia: Past, present and future directions.International handbook of health literacy, p.471.
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