Analysis of Successes and Failures in Australian Healthcare Policy

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the Australian healthcare system, focusing on the successes and failures of its public health policies. It begins by outlining the existing healthcare system, highlighting both public and private facilities, and then delves into a literature review to examine scholarly perspectives on the effectiveness of these policies. The essay discusses government decision-making processes, particularly in addressing issues like obesity and drug abuse, and identifies drawbacks in the current healthcare policy, including technological costs, public-private insurance imbalances, and demographic changes. Recommendations are offered to improve the system, and the essay concludes that while Australia has achieved significant progress in healthcare, persistent issues require further attention. Desklib offers this assignment as a valuable resource, providing students access to similar solved assignments and past papers.

Running Head: PUBLIC POLICY AND ITS IMPACT
PUBLIC POLICY AND ITS IMPACT
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1PUBLIC POLICY AND ITS IMPACT
Abstract
The healthcare system in Australia is highly complex and based on the public and private
facilities. Based on this understanding, this essay is going to discuss different aspects of the
healthcare system and puts highlight on success and failure of the healthcare policy of Australia.
In fact, it can be argued that there are series of success that the Australian government is
achieved in terms of providing a better healthcare facility. However, the unequal healthcare
problems with lack of understanding regarding the target customer will generate grave problems
for the Australian healthcare management. In this context, the essay puts highlight on the
government framework and the scholarly researches that determines the flaws and success of the
efficacy of the Australian healthcare policy. Later on, the essay is also come up with a
recommendation part that provides some insights in the discussion. In a conclusion, it can be
advocated that despite of having a series of achievements there are still issues in the Australian
healthcare policy that requires to be resolved.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Substance.........................................................................................................................................4
Existing healthcare system and policy.........................................................................................4
Healthcare system....................................................................................................................4
Healthcare policy.....................................................................................................................4
Literature review..........................................................................................................................5
Government decision making......................................................................................................7
Drawbacks in the healthcare policy.............................................................................................8
Technological costs.................................................................................................................9
Public and private insurance....................................................................................................9
Demographic changes..............................................................................................................9
Recommendations......................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference.......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
As far as the healthcare system of Australia is concerned, it can be stated that the
framework is largely complex and divided into the federal and state government initiatives for
funding and taking responsibilities. From an apparent perspective, the Australian healthcare
system is an effective model that efficiently increases the life expectancy of the Australian
people emphatically and as a result of that the country is known to be the sixth highest in the
world with an expectancy ratio of 82.2 per year (Health.gov.au 2018). However, from time
immemorial the Australian government had faced a series of challenges regarding the
formulation of its healthcare policy. Issues like obesity and illegal substance abuse or
developing the private healthcare facility there are still success yet to be achieved. In addition to
this, the political ambition and immense pressure from the interest groups are also perturbed the
situation extensively.
Based on this understanding, the purpose of this essay is to analyse and evaluate the
success and failure of the Australian healthcare policy. In this context, the discussion primarily
develops its arguments on the basis of the theoretical perspectives and conducts a great deal of
investigation on the erstwhile researches to identify the gaps in understanding the challenges.
Therefore, the essay at first points out the literature reviews and emphasises on the existing
healthcare system prevalent in Australia. After that the adequate decisions that the Australian
government has taken are also incorporated into the discussion. Finally, the report will conclude
with a recommendation.

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Substance
Existing healthcare system and policy
Healthcare system
The Australian healthcare system is very large and complex in nature because it is
divided into a number of different departments and segments. For an instance, both the federal
and the state government are responsible to take healthcare policies in their own terms. However,
those policies should not contradict one another. Besides the public or government initiatives, the
private healthcare service providing institutions are also interested to foster quality healthcare
services and committed to ensure better and healthy life to the Australian people (Health.gov.au
2018). In addition to this, it can be stated that the Australian government also encourages
interested parties to conduct advanced research related to the customer care, doctors, nurses and
pharmacists so that all the actors can contribute equally for the benefit of the healthcare system
in Australia. In fact, the Australian government is also entitled to put a deep concern over the
safety and quality of the health care and side by side introduces the National Health Performance
Authority to collect and retrieve data regarding the development of Australian healthcare status
and helps to find out the threats that have to be resolved on priority basis. The community
engagement program is also incorporated into the healthcare framework to facilitate a transparent
mechanism (Privatehealth.gov.au 2018).
Healthcare policy
As per the government initiatives it can be stated that the Australian government puts a
deep concern over the integration of the local and regional healthcare system with the national
healthcare policy framework. In response to this, a person-centred healthcare service system has

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been initiated through the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan. In this
context, a relevant and optimistic feature of the Australian healthcare policy framework is to
amend its existing system with the changing situation and challenges (Bovens, M. and Hart
2017). Moreover, it is also coupled with advising and guiding the regional and local hospitals
and healthcare facilities to move towards the right direction. In addition to this, the government
also puts emphasis on the aboriginal Australians and encompasses a detailed plan for
safeguarding their lives. Prevention of chronic diseases like yellow fever or influenza and also
the international epidemics like Zika virus or AIDS are also incorporated into the plan of the
Australian government (McConnell 2016). Furthermore, the metal illness is also considered to be
a matter of great concern for the Commonwealth healthcare framework in order to reduce
incidents like suicides. Both the children and the adults are covered into the plan and community
based activities are initiated largely. From that point of view, the Australian healthcare policy is
based on a sound basis.
Literature review
According to Duckett and Willcox (2015) it can be argued that the Australian healthcare
system has a number of mainstream practice that are entitled to deal with the health related
threats and challenges. As the Australian government puts emphasis on the betterment of the
health of the citizens therefore it becomes a pertinent matter for the healthcare policy. Adequate
treatment and diagnosis facilities are located all over the country that are responsible to deal with
these epidemic situation. In response to this both the private and public institutions and
organisations are responsible to deal with the healthcare issues. Moreover, the regional and
national frameworks are entitled to work with it.

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On the other hand, Shanahan et al. (2015) advocated that the healthcare system in
Australia is a very complex and long drawn process that incorporates both the public and private
authorities. Therefore, intense pressure from the private organisation and in national platform is
considered to be imposed a great deal of pressure for the Australian healthcare policy and system
robustly. In addition to this, the incorporation of the technological mechanism is identified as one
of the major step that the Australian government has taken in order to establish an international
standard of healthcare facility. The healthcare policy is also stapled with the new changes and
committed to deliver a beneficial healthcare environment in the country.
Besides this, Jansson, Dixon and Hatcher (2017) opined that the Australian healthcare
policy is coupled with a number of national and international organisations that help to establish
a better healthcare policy framework. From that point of view, important organisations like
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), the Australian productive Commission
and international organisations like OECD and World Bank played significant role in order to
not only provide financial assistance but also aiding technological support accordingly (Mitchell
et al. 2015). As far as the policy framework of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals
Association it can be argued that the purpose is to make a link between the local and regional
healthcare facilities which is intertwined with the healthcare policy statement prefaced by the
Australian government.
As a matter of fact, Carter et al. (2015) advocated that the adverse impact and emerging
threat of the drug abuse compelled the Australian government to initiate certain measures to deal
with the issue. Hence, the legislative body of Australia with the help of the healthcare agencies
sets a drug policy guide with the timeline of 2030 with the motive to reduce the practice quite
extensively. As a matter of fact, the National Drug Strategy of Australia has a prolong tradition

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and history and this was not the first time that the government wanted to prevent drug use.
However, with the change in course the government prioritises its demands and procuring more
effective measures to eradicate the problem properly.
Furthermore, the healthcare policy in Australia keeps an eye on the insurance facilities
provided to the Australian citizens. In this context, the newest rendition is related to the role of
the private healthcare insurances with two purpose. One is related to the redeeming the burden
that the Australian public healthcare facilities have suffered with and the other point is associated
with the role to make more effective healthcare measures for the Australian citizens (Greenhalgh
et al. 2016).
Government decision making
In this context, it can be stated that the government decision making has played a
significant role to deal with the changing health condition of the Australian people. In this
regard, there are some common healthcare problems that the Australian government is suffering
with. In this regard, obesity is considered to be one of the major factor that pushed the
government to take adequate decisions. In this regard, the government report highlighted that
more than 60% of the Australian adults were suffered with serious obesity related problems (Xia
et al. 2015). As a matter of fact, the risks of obesity has increased among the Australian children
as well and at least 10% of the children are suffering with this disease. As a matter of fact, the
OECD report illustrates that Australia ranked 4th according to the 2015 data with a rate of 26.9%
of the population (Mueller et al. 2015). Besides this, the problems of drug abuse is also
escalating in rapid manner that in 2016 the government report reflected that there are around 3.1
million Australians who are using illicit drugs. In case of the mental illness also the statistics is
very high with an amount of 45% of the Australians have mental illness program (Gainsbury et

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al. 2014). However, the government has some other health related issues that require to address
more effectively.
In this context, the newest adaption in the Australian healthcare policy is related to the
reduction of the private healthcare insurance interests for the Australian adults with the purpose
to increase the popularity of the private healthcare facilities as almost 90% Australians are still
relied on the public healthcare privileges (Lancaster and Ritter 2014). As a result of that it
becomes a huge pressure for the public healthcare facilities to deal with the dire situation.
Therefore, the government tries to change the course of the process by incorporating the private
healthcare facilities more aggressively to make a better healthcare framework. In this regard, the
healthcare expenditure among the Australian people has grown in a rampant pace from $40
billion overall expenditure in 1986 to more than $140 billion in the year 2013 and this process is
still continuing (Chen et al. 2014). In this context, the Australian government has to intervene
and takes decision accordingly to provide the Australian people quality healthcare facilities with
less expenses. This is considered to be a benevolent approach for the Australian government and
expected to generate more benefits for the Australian people. Moreover, it can be argued that the
Australian government puts more focus on the adult generation with an age between 19 and 40 in
order to ensure a healthy next generation (Hemsley et al. 2014).
Drawbacks in the healthcare policy
Despite all those efforts it can be argued that the Australian government is suffering with
a number of health related issues that are essentially be resolved in an urgent basis.

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Technological costs
Implementation of technology tools in healthcare facilities require a bulk of expenses.
However, in the 21st century it is important for the countries to incorporate technology in their
healthcare system with the purpose to maintain the international standard. The role of bulk of
investment requires private intervention with the existence of the public organisations. However,
in case of Australia the government keeps less focus on the private organisations and the
healthcare policies do little to meet the interests of the private healthcare institutions (Savic et al.
2016). Besides this, the continual cost and diffusion of technology requires an in-depth
budgetary in order to execute the process effectively but in Australia there are inadequate
mechanism for this.
Public and private insurance
As far as the medical insurance process in Australia is concerned, it can be asserted that
the country has a complex process in case of insurance because both private and public
healthcare insurances are existed into the market. As most of the Australians are like to choose
public healthcare facilities rather than the private ones (Swan 2015). This trend is also seen in
case of choosing healthcare insurance. Moreover, the private health insurances are overpriced so
that it is obvious for the people to choose for the public health insurances (Cunningham and
Regan 2017). Moreover, the newly introduced rebate in the private healthcare insurance is also
limited for the young adults. The aged Australians are still deprived of such measure and as a
result of that the government will fail to promote the private insurances as well.
Demographic changes
In this context, it can be stated that there was a change in the demography of Australia where
14% of the population is more than the age of 60. It was estimated that the number will escalated

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up to 21% in the 2015 (Lyle and Greenhill 2018). In response to this, the Australian government
does not address any amendments in its foreign policy for the benefits of the aged groups.
Moreover, there are substantial changes for the benefit of the aged people and fear of voter
backlash affected the healthcare policy procured by the Australian government.
Recommendations
The recommendations are as follows,
 It is important for the Australian government to ensure equal privileges for all the citizens
living and working in Australia. In response to this, amending the healthcare policy with
better framework will be considered as an important aspect for the Australian
government.
 As there are discrepancies and problems vested in the relationship between the public and
private healthcare agencies therefore it is important for the Australian government to
procure a better policy framework that encompasses all the healthcare facilities
irrespective of having public or private status. Moreover, an unique system for the entire
healthcare system is also needed in order to deal with the challenges more effectively.
 Increasing trend of the expenditure in healthcare is not an optimistic trend for the
Australian healthcare system. The government surely takes some measures to curb down
the cost of private healthcare insurances but at the same time it is also important to
redeem the overall costs of treatment and surgeries especially for the age old persons.
 Putting more emphasis on the aboriginal community is also considered to be an important
aspect on which the Australian government must levy more emphasis. In this context,
implementing specific policy framework for the aboriginal Australians can be contributed
more and facilitate a better Australian healthcare policy.

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Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be stated that apparently the Australian healthcare
system has a solid base to deliver better healthcare facility for the people. As a matter of fact,
going with the trend the Australian government also sets some policy to implement technological
medical practices on a robust manner in order to reduce the errors and provide quality healthcare
services. In this context, it can also be asserted that the healthcare policy of Australia is rightly
adapt new strategies with the change in the situation and prioritise the issues on the basis of
intensity. Therefore, it becomes an effective tool to increase the life expectancy of the people.
Despite of all the efforts it can be argued that there are some serious flaws inside the
healthcare policy of the Australian government that failed to reduce the health related expenses
and incompetent to identify the target patients based on the age factors. As a result of that the
purpose of the Australian health policy is partially successful and it requires further researches to
deal with this fundamental problem. In fact, the government shows some biasness while
targeting the possible patients. From that point of view, it can be concluded that due to having a
good healthcare policy the Australian government should resolve the fundamental problems that
help it to become one of the great healthcare system around the world.