Comparison of US and Australian Healthcare Systems

This essay compares the healthcare systems of the United States and Australia, highlighting their similarities and differences in terms of access, equity, and efficiency. It also discusses a case study on the treatment and assessment of a young lady with respiratory symptoms and fever, and the social, political, and economic issues that affect the delivery and quality of healthcare services in New Zealand.

Running head: HEALTH ADMINISTRATION AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
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Health Administration and Service Development
Name
Institution

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HEALTH ADMINISTRATION AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
US VS AUSRALIA
Task 1
The essay discusses the comparison of the United States system of Healthcare with that
of the Australian health care system. Through the contrast, we find that the Australian uses
mixed market of operating health which is superior because of its development in both access
and equity as opposed to US use which has significant benefits found within the efficiency of the
system.
The health care system used in the US focused on self-provision. It is created in a way
that the Citizens are responsible for the entire cost of health care of their choice. This is initiated
by the great push by the private health sectors. The US personal funding for health is derived
from employment. That is, the employer is making an individual purchase of health insurance.
This indicates that individuals without the job do not have the similar luxury of opportunity. The
establishment of the government-funded scheme that assists people who are unemployed was
implemented in 1965. The scheme enables the elderly to get health care, and the poor are being
financed by the State and Federal governments.
The healthcare system in Australia is designed to combine two essential contributors to
funding, the private sector, and the public sector. The Australian system offers significant public
funds to areas that require adequate need at both State and Federal level. These satisfactory need
services require the use of overall hospital visits and practitioners.

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The healthcare system of Australian has s similar structure of mixed market of health care
as that of the American. This similarity can be seen due to the existence of both private and
public sectors offering funds for the delivery of the healthcare. Even though there is similarity
the market design related to health care, there are differences surrounding the orientation of the
health care system. As opposed to the US, the ideology that surrounds the system of Australian is
that all individuals should possess equal right with regards to health care treatment. This defines
the presence of equity within the systems.
The model of American creates the lack of need and or want by many individuals to
create equity. The American model neglects the use of equity. The reason for this nonexistent of
equity is because of the ideology of the people of US. The ideology exists about independence,
related to the success of the monetary. As the relationship between employment and health
insurance can be seen throughout the system of the American, the feelings of the Americans is
that is their responsibility to look after themselves regarding the health care. By getting lucrative
jobs and thereby enabling access to quality insurance, the system of US promotes and achieves
the self-resilience treasured by the entire society. The problem of this ideology is that many
people in the US do not have insurance, this lead to the reduction in the access of healthcare
services.
While in the context of Australians health care, equity is of better ideological value. The
adequate care policy enables the Australians regardless of their ethnicity, social status and level
of income to get a basic level of fund allocation to their health. The equity concept seen in the
society of Australian is of higher value than that of the US society. Many developed countries,
for example, the United Kingdom, prefer the use of equity with the same approach as that of the
Australia which supports the use of the public health sector instead of the private.

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The efficiency of the US systems regarding the resources and service delivery are of
higher quality; the service waiting list is low. This indicates the major benefits of a strong
privatized system that should be in place. This type of aspects is mostly recognized by the US.
The problem regarding the efficiency of the US model is finances allocation. The US is spending
more money on services associated with health. The excessive spending indicates inefficiency
through the analysis of money.
Within the system of Australian, resources, finance and service delivery are not very
efficient. Waiting list within the system takes a long time making the ability of the resources
provided to be difficult.
Comparing both the United States and Australia healthcare systems indicates some
interesting outcomes. Australia spends almost half of their GDP percentage as compared United
States and covers the entire population completely. The government of US spends a large
amount of money on healthcare, but still, 16 percent of the people are uninsured. The two
countries experience similar problems, for example, the increase healthcare spending. The two
countries take into consideration the importance of aging population as it plays the crucial role in
the increase in expenditure, and each contributes to the increase in average cost per person. The
two countries provide private insurance and coverage from the government; the only difference
is on the plans which vary greatly.
It is difficult to apply the US health care system because of the differences in the cultural
disparity between the two nations. Australia healthcare system can be used more appropriate in
New Zealand because the two countries somehow share similar cultural/the elements of national
identity.

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Task 2
Case study: Treatment and Assessment of a young lady with respiratory symptom
and fever.
Rights or Act that seem to have been breached
In the case study, the rights of a young girl with respiratory system and fever were
breached in the public hospital in the following way:
DHM staff did not follow the right procedure in discharging the girl on the second visit of
the hospital, Staff failed on several occasions to offer enough discharge information to the family
of the girl, and DHM failed to offer the required services to the client (girl) with reasonable skill
and care. The telehealth nurses failed to offer the client’s family relevant information of the
clinical symptoms of the disease affecting the young girl. These entire processes prevent both the
young girl and her family the right of accessing accurate information.
1) Social issues
Geographical- there exist substantial geographical difference in New Zealand health care
services, and this affects the delivery and access to the health services. A district with lesser than
average income experiences higher rates of hospitalizations and premature mortality. At a small
area, there is high population. This is because, at birth, the life expectancy gradient is steep
(Munson & Jaccard, 2018).
Socioeconomic
The socioeconomic affect the New Zealand health care services in that it allows the
existence of major inequalities and these inequalities influence the operation of the health

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services. All ethnic groups that are in New Zealand show the gradients of socio-economic.
However, the gradient is quite shallow for the people that are found in Pacific and Asian and
steep for European and Maori ethnic categories. The effect of socioeconomic on the New
Zealand health is mostly underestimated (Mossialos, Wenzl, Osborn & Sarnak, 2016). This is
because the available measures put in place do not capture socioeconomic issues, and studies
also fail to capture the cumulative effect that the socioeconomic create to health care. People
who reside in a more deprived environment experiences higher hospitalization rate and higher
death rate as compared to individuals that reside in affluent areas. The mortality rates of low
socioeconomic groups are higher as compare to those with high socioeconomic groups, from
diseases.
2) Political issues
Government goals- the goal put in place by the New Zealand government affect the
health care services. One of the major goal of the government that control public sectors
performance and policy is to lower inequalities in employment, education, health and housing for
all the groups that are disadvantaged such as between women and men and Pacific and Maori
peoples (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018). The government should ensure that the set goals are
achieved by the ministry of health. When the government fulfills the goals set in time, then the
health care services will function well in terms of delivery and satisfaction of the patient’s need.
The government goal enables it to set up enough finance to enables the publicly funded health
care improve the service delivery to the people.
Government policies- the policies of the government affect the New Zealand health care
services delivery in that it has different policies that can affect the performance of the health
care. These policies require long-term investment and planning, but they also enable many

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people to live a healthy life. The established policies ensure that the health services are well
equipped with enough resources in order to help them operate their daily activities. They also
help individuals to age well, as well as having timely access to health care services.
3) Economic issues
Public financial barriers
The health system of New Zealand is mainly public. All the Citizens who are permanent
residents have different access to services, and the finance comes from the general taxes.
Nonresidents, for example, illegal immigrant and tourists, are paying the full amount of service
to the providers of the public health care (Manners, 2017). When there is a barrier to the
provision of the public finance the activities of the health care may take place with a lot of
difficulties. Therefore, financial barriers influence the performance of the healthcare service in
New Zealand as it limits the allocation set aside for the development of the healthcare.
Private cost
This is the actual cost associated with the accessing of the health care services. The
private cost of each of the healthcare services affects the delivery of the services.
People sometimes opt to attend to private health care in a situation where they cannot
access the public health care. They have to pay for the treatment or through private insurance;
they can use it to access the health services. According to Munson & Jaccard (2018) research
work, state that poor treatment comes with the higher cost in the long run and it is more
expensive to the economy. The tendency of people paying for the healthcare services mostly
causes higher burden to the people. This is because some of the services are quite expensive.
Conclusion

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The healthcare model should be efficient enough to cater for the need of the patients. The
government should also come up with suitable strategies to help solve the problems that the
health cares are facing. The provision of healthcare services requires a large number of resources
to help improve the services delivery to the patients. The political, social and economic factors
can affect the delivery and quality of the healthcare services of a particular nation. Government
and different organization should work together to improve the healthcare service in New
Zealand. Through the comparison of the two countries, it is true that staying in society like
Australia is more relevant because of the values and ethics used within the system of the health
care.

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References
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management.
Elsevier Health Sciences.
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The Strategic Management of Healthcare
Organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Manners, R. A. (2017). Professional dominance: The social structure of medical care.
Routledge.
Mossialos, E., Wenzl, M., Osborn, R., & Sarnak, D. (2016). 2015 international profiles of health
care systems. Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health.
Munson, M. R., & Jaccard, J. (2018). Mental health service use among young adults: a
communication framework for program development. Administration and Policy in
Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 45(1), 62-80.

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