Sociology of Health: An Analysis of the Australian Healthcare System

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Australian healthcare system from a sociological perspective. It begins with an executive summary highlighting the key issues, including the influence of power and hierarchy, and the resulting inequalities in access to care. The report then delves into the specifics of the Medicare scheme, problems related to demography, technology costs, and health inequality. It further explores the advantages and disadvantages of the system, alongside sociological theories such as positivism, functionalism, social construction, and postmodernism to explain the dynamics of healthcare in Australia. The report concludes by synthesizing the findings, emphasizing the need for equitable access and addressing the challenges to improve the system. The report also includes an introduction, table of contents and references.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY AND HEALTH
Sociology and Health
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
The purpose of the following paper is to execute the current problems in the Australian
healthcare system. The Australian healthcare system is facing many issues and challenges at the
moment because they cannot control these issues properly. The situations have been quite serious
because the powerful people have been influencing the medical facilities and management by
their hierarchy powers. These issues have been discussed in the following paper. Apart from that,
the several advantages and disadvantages have been explained in the course as well. These
disadvantages have been hindering the medical facilities to serve the human beings better. It is
the right of every person to get the best treatment facilities. If they do not get that they will be
deprived of those facilities. These issues have been described here along with some sociological
theories related to the medical and healthcare facilities in the country.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
The condition of healthcare system in Australia.............................................................................3
Medicare scheme.............................................................................................................................4
Australian healthcare system problems and issues..........................................................................5
Changes in demography..............................................................................................................5
Technology costs.........................................................................................................................5
Equality issues and health inequality...........................................................................................6
Private and public funding of the Australian healthcare.............................................................6
Disadvantages in the Australian healthcare system.....................................................................6
Sociological theories of healthcare..................................................................................................7
Positivism and social medicine....................................................................................................8
Functionalism..............................................................................................................................8
Social construction.......................................................................................................................9
Postmodernism............................................................................................................................9
Results of the discussion................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The following paper is about the healthcare system in Australia and the influence of
power and hierarchy in it. It is an obvious fact that health is a very integral factor in every
country and the government is directly responsible for the things that happen in the healthcare
system. Their role is to make sure that the patients get the proper treatment and they come round
within a certain period of time. Besides that they should also make sure that they should be
giving the patients an equal opportunity so that the patients are treated well despite their poor
economical condition. However, these are the ethical things that are not maintained properly in
Australia. The impact of power and hierarchy has a huge say in determining who will get the
proper treatment and who will not. It is known to everyone that with power comes the money. If
the power and money is not utilized in the positive sense the negative impacts will come out at a
certain point of time for sure. In this course, the problems and hazards that are caused because of
the misuse power and hierarchy will be discussed here. The probable outcomes that can happen
for this have to be analyzed because most of the lower income families are deprived of the
opportunities just because they do not have the proper networks to connect with the powerful
persons who influence the healthcare system in Australia (Currie et al., 2012).
The condition of healthcare system in Australia
Healthcare facilities in Australia are generally provided by the government run or
privatized hospitals in Australia. The universal healthcare system in Australia is known to be
Medicare. The federal government in Australia offers several schemes for the people in
Australia. This scheme is known as the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme ("Department of Health
| Welcome to the Department of Health", 2017). The people, who come under the various

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insurance policies related to the healthcare, can avail the benefits as well. The federal minister
for Health is Mr. Greg Hunt who has been supervising the healthcare matters for the government.
Medicare scheme
The Medicare scheme by the federal government has helped many patients who cannot
afford the healthcare costs properly ("Department of Health | Welcome to the Department of
Health", 2017). The Medicare benefits schedule can cover the healthcare costs of the patients as
it provides leverage to the patients and pays a certain percent of the total costs in favor of the
patients. This scheme is obviously very much helpful for the families of the patients. However,
certain medical points are not covered within this scheme. The health insurance is one of the
main factors in the Australian healthcare system. The funding of the health insurance is provided
by the government and supported by the private health insurance benefits. The Australian GDP is
greatly affected by the health insurance policies ("Department of Health | Welcome to the
Department of Health", 2017).
However, coming back to the talking point about the healthcare system, it can be asserted
that the power and hierarchy has left its mark on the healthcare system ("Department of Health |
Welcome to the Department of Health", 2017). The workforce in the Australian medical system
is quite good and they provide a quality care in this aspect as well. It has been seen that Australia
is one of the very few countries who can provide quality healthcare to its patients. The rural
healthcare reports have been quite impressive as well. The Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare has seen through the problems in the healthcare system and they have tried their best
efforts to come up with the best possible policies. The non-government organizations like the
Australian Red Cross Blood Donation Service have been arranging blood donation camps at

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several places for the betterment of the lives of the people. The disabled people are well cared as
well. These perspectives cannot be overlooked although the hierarchy issues are something to be
concerned about.
Australian healthcare system problems and issues
Changes in demography
The demographic changes in relation to the Australian healthcare system have been
immense because is a challenge to all the people in the country to avail the costly treatment
processes (Spector, 2012). The ageing population of the country faces most of the problems
regarding health. The Australian government has faced the major challenges like the decrease in
voter numbers because if they determine to bring the changes in the Medicare system, they may
lose some of the voters instantly. The budgets have been increasing very recently and that has
become to be a burden for the government itself. They lack the efficient systems that can address
the changes in the Medicare system.
Technology costs
The cost in the healthcare system has increase a lot in the last few years and the use of
technological equipments to make the lives of the people healthy has made a huge cause for
worry in this matter (Chandra & Skinner, 2012). The 21st century technological breakthrough
has improved the quality of health services in great many ways but also increased the costs as
well. That has been a major concern for the people. It can also be said that the powerful people
have money and they are likely to use their power and money to get the best treatments (Currie et
al., 2012).

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Equality issues and health inequality
The healthcare system in Australia has improved a lot in the past few years. This can be
addressed in the lower mortality rates that the latest published reports have produced. The
disease management controlling system has become all the more efficient and the workforce is
much more skilled. It is a concern over the country that these facilities are not shared across the
country in equal measures (Zwar et al., 2017). The difference comes in the fact the more affluent
people have got the best chances of affording the quality treatment than the less affluent people.
This is one of the major concerns because it is expected that the government should provide
equal medical facilities to all the groups of people, irrespective of their financial conditions
(Thompson, 2016).
Private and public funding of the Australian healthcare
It should be remembered that the public and private organizations should always join
hands so that they can work together in order to provide best healthcare facilities (Denton, 2013).
It is their social responsibility as well. It is a clear notion in Australia that the healthcare system
could have worked better if it was left to the market activities. The income from the private
sectors has been one of the major earning sources of the country. This means the business
activities have to be looked after well. It is, therefore, clear that the people who possess a good
amount of money will get the best treatments just because they possess that money. On the
contrary, the less affluent people will not be able to receive that much good treatment because
they do not have that much money at their possession (Kongstvedt, 2012).
Disadvantages in the Australian healthcare system
The Australian healthcare system has many disadvantages within it. This is because the
federal government has not been able to bring many changes to the problems that have been

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concurrent with the system (Grol et al., 2013). They have identified these problems and should
be going to resolve them.
 The cost effectiveness of the treatment process is not that much improved in some of the
regions. The people in the rural regions are not being able to avail the best treatments
because of their not so affluent economical conditions (Claxton et al., 2015).
 The spread of private health services should be much more because they will be able to
provide better healthcare facilities to the people in the rural region.
 The health services are not equally distributed in all the sections of the society. This is
why most of the people still do not receive the best healthcare services (Buettner‐Schmidt
& Lobo, 2012).
 The lack in funding has stopped the health services in many of the regions since they
have not been able to meet the demands of the patients at a large scale (Page, 2014).
 Most people have become so selfish and think the medical system as a business process
that they do not want to provide anything for free. They only know the value of money
and power. The people who are in the hierarchy of the society always get the first
opportunity to be treated properly. The poor people are often deprived of these facilities
in Australia.
Sociological theories of healthcare
Some sociological theories of healthcare should be discussed in this segment because it is
important to understand that the society is the inseparable part of the human lives and the society
has to be an important part of discussion when healthcare is in jeopardy (Gabe & Monaghan,
2013). Some of the main theories that can be attributed to healthcare in terms of sociology are

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positivism and social medicine, functionalism, social construction, postmodernism, critical
theory and others.
Positivism and social medicine
This theory emphasizes on the fact that society has to be viewed from the physical terms
and perhaps from the context of the medical terms as well (Cockerham, 2014). The estimations
of people change with their age as well as it changes as per their gender and race. The positivist
concerns deal with the pain caused by burns or cuts record passive responses from the people.
There are various kinds of reactions recorded for the people like the certain characteristics,
certain beliefs that are superficial, passive mindsets and other things always bring in a new
experience for the actors. The societal and medical perspectives are united in this context. This is
effective in case of all the people. If these things are not properly handled, many problems can
arise from it (Cockerham, 2014).
Functionalism
The main things that are the talking points for functionalism are it concerns that society is
seen as a singular organism and the entire medical system must be full of principles and kind.
The patients always wait for the doctors who would treat them with kindness and the right
treatment process and the right medicines (Greenhalgh, 2013). The patients stay sick and they
come round after a fair round of proper treatment by the doctors. All the patients should be
looked after by the doctors in the same way and be cured. These are the basic principles that the
doctors must abide by every time.

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Social construction
Another important theory in the medical perspective that connects with the social theories
is social construction. This is a contrasting approach to positivism theory in many ways.
According to this theory, it is believed that there are no singular truths in the system rather
everything depends on the situation (Payne, 2015). No specific thing can be regarded as the solid
gold or the exact truth because there might be different things that could be pertinent from
different viewpoints as well. The people go through several experiences and then these
experiences are gathered together to form a proper view. There are no neutral perspectives as
such. The people believe that the medical practitioners who are part of the health system must
talk with the patients properly and understand their problems (Payne, 2015). They should be
much more humanistic in their approach. The patients’ minds are full of fears, hopes and other
emotions. They should be looking to build a soft minded relationship with the healthcare system
built on faith and trust. It is the duty of the doctors and the people within the medical system.
However, these emotions are applicable in all groups of people. If this is not understood by the
people in the system and they continue to favor the powerful people in hierarchy, the poor people
will soon cease to exist.
Postmodernism
The postmodernism theory related to healthcare system tells that the boundaries or the
limitations must be brought down (Wuest, 2012). The implication is the fact that there should be
no barriers between rich, powerful people and the less affluent people within the society. This
theory always considers the fact that there is a mysterious relationship between the body and the
mind. Experience is the factor that determines the changes the outlook of a person in the medical

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practice. It says that all the people should be looked at equally and should be treated in the same
way.
Results of the discussion
After a thorough discussion about the Australian healthcare system it has been found that
the Australian healthcare system has become biased in some senses. They have been favoring the
hierarchy people and the people who have power of money. This should not be in practice since
most of the people would be deprived of the facilities (Williams & Wyatt, 2015). All the people
should be viewed in same way and be treated in the same way as the others are.
Conclusion
This paper can be concluded by saying that Australian healthcare system has been going
through a moral downfall since the medical treatment or the facilities have become a favored
service for them. The people who are powerful in terms of monetary power and belong to the
hierarchy of the society are being favored by the hospitals and other medical centers. It is a
concern because private medical facilities have regarded this as a business to much extent. This
will hamper the health concerns of the less affluent people in the society. The medical facilities
are such services that should be given to everyone in the society at a cheaper rate because
everyone has the right to live healthy. If the more affluent sections are favored by the
government or the private medical facilities, the less affluent and poor people will be under
severe threat. Some of the sociological theories in context of medical or healthcare system have
been discussed here also.

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