1803NRS Assignment: Factors Shaping Australian Healthcare Sector

This essay examines two key influences that have shaped the Australian healthcare sector: healthcare policies, particularly Medicare, and the socioeconomic status of the population. The essay details how Medicare, a universal healthcare scheme, has broadened access to healthcare services and subsidized costs for Australian residents. It also explores the impact of socioeconomic disparities on health outcomes, highlighting how factors like income, education, and occupation affect access to care and health disparities across different regions, with a specific focus on the disadvantaged area of Cherbourg in Queensland. The analysis further discusses the implications of these influences on the demand for registered nurses, emphasizing the need for increased staffing and specialized training to meet the evolving needs of the healthcare system and a growing and more informed population seeking healthcare services.

Running Head: FACTORS WHICH HAVE SHAPED THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTH SECTOR 1
Factors which have shaped the Australian Health Sector
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FACTORS WHICH HAVE SHAPED THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTH SECTOR 2
Factors which have shaped the Australian Health Sector
In any country, how the healthcare system is structured plays a major role in determining
the general health status of the country. Having a well-structured and effective healthcare system
enables a country to achieve its health goals. However, to achieve a well-structured and effective
healthcare system there are a number of factors which come into play. For instance, countries in
the sub-Saharan regions are likely to struggle a lot to achieve effective healthcare systems than
those in Mediterranean regions because resources are limited. Other factors such as the Medicare
policy have seen the Australian healthcare sector transform from its initial approach where
access was difficult for low class citizens to a universal approach. It is important for nurses in the
contemporary society to understand these two influences of healthcare because they will enable
them prioritize healthcare responses depending on the location (Kay & Boxall, 2015). For
instance, people living in disadvantaged areas such as Cherbourg in Queensland will need more
attention when it comes to healthcare services. This paper scrutinizes health policies and
socioeconomic status in Australia and how they have shaped the country’s healthcare sector and
access to healthcare services.
In Australia, healthcare is delivered in a mixed system approach. There is universal
healthcare which is seen as public and there is private healthcare which is achieved through the
acquisition of health insurance cover. Although the majority of healthcare services are provided
publicly or through the universal healthcare approach which entails primary health care and
public hospitals, there are others which are provided in the private sector (Robinson, Varhol,
Ramamurthy, Denehy, Hendrie, O'Leary & Selvey, 2015). Comparing the ease of healthcare
service access in some few years ago with what is experienced currently; there is a big difference
which has been brought about by the government intervention in this sector. The government of

FACTORS WHICH HAVE SHAPED THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTH SECTOR 3
Australia came up with a health care policy called Medicare which has fully shaped the
healthcare sector of the country from what it used to be. Medicare is a scheme that was proposed
by the government of Australia to give its residents access to healthcare (Raymond, Preen,
Inderjeeth, Keen & Nossent, 2017).
Medicare is the universal health insurance scheme in Australia that subsidizes medical
costs for all Australian citizens as well as permanent residents. There are also other schemes
which are funded by the government of Australia through its healthcare policy to cover specific
circumstances such as indigenous Australians, workers compensation scheme and veterans
(Schadewaldt, McInnes, Hiller & Gardner, 2016). Medicare scheme is supported by the 2% levy
paid by the Australians who earn over a certain amount. To cater for medical costs of Australian
visitors, the government has permitted the travel insurances to cover visitors. People who are not
registered with Medicare and wish to be covered for hospital costs are allowed to take out private
health insurance which is also subsidized by the government of Australia. In addition to these
schemes, there is a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which is also funded by the Australian
government to considerably subsidize a number of prescribed medications (Wong, Greene,
Dolja‐Gore & van Gool, 2017).
Through Medicare, Australian residents have been able to get free or subsidized
treatment by health professionals such as dentists, doctors, and other allied health care
practitioners. Also, residents who have registered in this scheme can access free accommodation
and treatment in public hospitals (McCall, 2016). Finally, private patients who attend private
hospitals have been able to get 75% of the Medicare Schedule fee for services and procedures
subsidized (Hua, Erreygers, Chalmers, Laba & Clarke, 2017). Compared to the previous
healthcare system, this new system has made easy and affordable to access healthcare services

FACTORS WHICH HAVE SHAPED THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTH SECTOR 4
regardless of the socioeconomic class. This is in consideration of the fact that subscription to
Medicare is cheaper compared to the health service charges if citizens were to directly pay for
their hospital bills (Eckermann & Sheridan, 2016).
The second factor which has influenced and shaped the health sector and access to
healthcare services in Australia is the socioeconomic status of people living in different parts of
the country. Socioeconomic status is a term used to describe the factors surrounding a person's
lifestyle (Donato & Onur, 2018). Such factors include income, education, and occupation. These
factors are very important when conducting research on healthcare. This is because different
socioeconomic status determines people’s access to medical care, physical activity opportunities,
and healthy food. The three factors affect health and must be accounted for when accessing the
risks of different diseases and infections (Martinson & Reichman, 2016).
In Australia, the relationship between socioeconomic status and mortality, morbidity,
disability, and mental health has been widely documented. Although most of the research papers
have indicated that the overall relationship between socioeconomic status and mortality
attenuates in old ages, there are others which have linked this factor to the prevalence of
disabilities, chronic and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular
diseases and many types of cancer (Ding, Do, Schmidt & Bauman, 2015). Cherbourg in
Queensland which is the most disadvantaged local government area has its population living
under low socioeconomic status. As a result, it has been ranked among the areas with a high
number of people suffering from poor physical and mental health. This is because people in the
area operate through various psychosocial mechanisms with poor and risky health-related
behaviors, heightened and prolonged stress, social exclusion, low self-esteem and differential
access to proper nutrition.

FACTORS WHICH HAVE SHAPED THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTH SECTOR 5
In turn, the psychosocial mechanisms have led to physiological changes such as altered
blood-pressure, raised cortisol and declined immunity that has placed people living in Cherbourg
at the risk of adverse health and general body functioning outcomes (Sugiyama, Howard, Paquet,
Coffee, Taylor & Daniel, 2015). Not only does socioeconomic status affect health access but also
the physical and mental status of people.
In Australia, socioeconomic status has played a major role in health and health access in
various ways. First, health services are not offered for free in the healthcare settings of the
country, this implies that people must be able to afford to pay for the services in order to access
those services. People with low or no income have found it hard to access health services
because they can’t afford. Contrary, it has been easy for people with high income to access
healthcare services because they can afford it. It is through this approach that health disparities in
different states of Australia have been realized (Yu, Luo, Kahn, Grogan, O’Connell & Jemal,
2017). For instance, the coastal suburbs in the north and east of Sydney which are the most
affluent in Australia have low mortality and the life expectancy is high because most of the
people living in those areas have high socioeconomic status hence can afford healthcare services.
This is however not the case in some of the disadvantaged areas in Queensland and northern
territory where people are living under low socioeconomic status. The mortality rate is very high
while life expectancy is low because people can hardly afford healthcare services.
As healthcare schemes such as Medicare continue to widen their scope to reach all the
parts of Australia, the demand for registered nurses will keep increasing. This is in consideration
of the fact that more people will continue to enroll in those schemes to access healthcare services
provided by the registered nurses. Increased number of people registering under those schemes
will lead to an increased number of people who will be attending healthcare facilities for

FACTORS WHICH HAVE SHAPED THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTH SECTOR 6
treatment purposes. The current number of registered nurses, therefore, won’t be able to
accommodate them and that will lead to an increased demand for registered nurses in the country
to bridge the gap. The roles of registered nurses are also likely to widen to accommodate the
needs and health requirements of the increased number of people who will be visiting the
healthcare facilities. This will be achieved by organized training for the RNs to align them with
the new healthcare demands.
The socioeconomic status for most of the citizens of Australia continues to improve. The
improvement will see most of the Australians regardless of their origins able to access healthcare
facilities. On the other hand, the literacy level of citizens in this country has also continued to
improve. In the future, the entire population of the country will be aware of the importance of
visiting healthcare facilities (Jackson & Hambleton, 2016). This will also increase the demand
for registered nurses to accommodate the high population which will be visiting health facilities
for treatment purposes. The roles of registered nurses are also likely to widen to accommodate
the needs and health requirements of the increased number of people who will be visiting the
healthcare facilities. This will be achieved by organized training for the RNs to align them with
the new healthcare demands
In conclusion, this paper has scrutinized two factors which have influenced and shaped
the health sector of Australia. The two factors have been identified to be healthcare policies and
the disparity in socioeconomic status among the citizens. In regard to healthcare policies, the
paper has revealed that there are a number of schemes which have been implemented by the
government of Australia with the aim of achieving universal healthcare (Callander & Fox, 2018).
Medicare has been identified as the main scheme in the country which has made it possible for
almost all the citizens to have access to healthcare at an affordable cost which is deducted by the

FACTORS WHICH HAVE SHAPED THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTH SECTOR 7
government as tax. The disparity in socioeconomic status has been identified as the main reason
behind mortality, morbidity and life expectancy differences in different parts of the country. In
places such as Cherbourg in Queensland where residents are disadvantaged in terms of resources,
the morbidity, mortality rates are high (Duckett, 2015). The two factors have continued to
increase the demand for registered nurses to accommodate the increasing number of people
visiting healthcare facilities for treatment purposes. The role of registered nurses has also kept
widening to accommodate the needs and health requirements of the increasing number of people
visiting the healthcare facilities.

FACTORS WHICH HAVE SHAPED THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTH SECTOR 8
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