Health Sociology Essay: Neo-Liberalism's Impact on Australian Health

This essay examines the influence of neo-liberalism on the Australian healthcare system, with a specific focus on its effects on Indigenous health outcomes. It explores sociological theories and perspectives, including institutional theory and the biomedical model, to understand the disparities in healthcare access and quality experienced by Indigenous Australians. The essay analyzes how neo-liberal policies, emphasizing individual responsibility and market-driven approaches, have impacted health practitioners and contributed to health inequalities. It discusses the shortcomings of the biomedical model in addressing these inequalities and highlights the need for a more holistic and socially just approach to healthcare delivery. The paper also reviews how health outcomes for Indigenous Australians have been affected by these neoliberal ideologies. The essay draws on relevant research and data to support its arguments, providing a comprehensive overview of the complex interplay between neo-liberalism, sociological perspectives, and Indigenous health in Australia. The work underscores the need for a balanced approach to address the health gap among the Indigenous.

Running Head: HEALTH SOCIOLOGY
Health Sociology
Name
Institution

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Health Sociology
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Theories and Perspectives in Neo-Liberalism in Health.................................................................3
Neo-Liberalism in Healthcare System in Australia.........................................................................4
Health Outcomes for Indigenous Australians..................................................................................7
Biomedical Model........................................................................................................................8
Neo-liberalism Impact on Health Practitioners...............................................................................9
Conclusions....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Promoting the health standing of Indigenous peoples is a long-term challenge for
governments in Australia. It has been found that the gap in health standing among non-
indigenous and Indigenous persons in Australia remains unsuitably broad. Sociological theories
play a leading in providing the current state of healthcare systems towards meeting the health
needs of the citizens. The Australian health system has been cited as being influenced by the
new-liberalist political agenda that affects the health outcomes of indigenous peoples in
Australia. Significant determinants of Indigenous health inequality indicate the lack of equal
access to primary care, along with inferior standard of healthcare infrastructure among the
Indigenous peoples when contrasted with other Australians (Humphrys, 2014). Whilst it is
essential to promoting Indigenous health outcomes, these concerns remain major problems in the
country. Whilst Australian Indigenous conceptions of health have been described as holistic, as
well as collective, modern approaches to healthcare services and research are frequently
premised on the logical and reflective subject of neoliberal discourse.
In the latest years, healthcare research in Australia has exposed an inequitable burden of
disease among the Indigenous persons, which is attributed to social along with economic
marginalization. The ideology of neo-liberalism endeavours to restructure the practices plus
policies of government through conceiving the issue as coherent, independent, choice-making
plus accountable (AIHW, 2015). The paper will examine the neo-liberalism politics on providing
care to Indigenous persons in Australia, as well as the impact of neo-liberalism on health

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practitioners by examining different sociological perspectives that include the institutional theory
and biomedical models.
Theories and Perspectives in Neo-Liberalism in Health
Social theories and perspectives have an important role in offering an explanation in the
current inequalities in the healthcare systems, especially in Australia. The current healthcare
system in Australia is characterized by huge disparities between Indigenous along with non-
indigenous peoples because of the power politics that have been brought by the current neo-
liberalism in Australia (Gracey & King, 2009). Theories of institutions general seek to explain
how the social units, like organizations, for example, by state or the professionals and internally
by pressures from within these organizations or units themselves. Significantly, institutional
theory stresses the connections between organizations-the social processes that tie each other-
recognizing the homogenizing forces linked to institutional fields (Goldberg, 2012).
The sociology theories and perspectives have seen to explore the different health
inequalities to ensure that the current gaps are explored and develop the necessary policies
needed to address the health gap among the Indigenous. These theories and perspectives clearly
address the gaps among the Indigenous. The health effects of social inequality have established
the individualistic biomedical model insufficient for explaining health inequalities. The
sociological theories have provided a better understanding of the neo-liberal views in its
inadequacy to meet the wants of the Indigenous persons making it clear on the role of the social
determinants among the Indigenous peoples in Australia (Chapman, 2014).

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Neo-Liberalism in the Healthcare System in Australia
Whilst access to health services is a basic human right, World Health Organization
(WHO) reports that Indigenous people face multiple hurdles in their endeavour to access health
services, as well as report greater unfulfilled healthcare needs, contrasted with non-indigenous.
There is widespread research on the effect of neo-liberalism on access to health services for the
populace. Nonetheless, there is a shortage of studies that reflects the impacts of neo-liberalism
policies for Indigenous persons. These researches have established the presence of health
disparities in access plus the use of health services among Indigenous persons in Australia
(Chapman, 2014).
Neo-liberalism is a concept that is made up of two thoughts, specifically neo that means
new along with liberal that means from state intervention. Neo-liberalism is a political principle
that extends market relations into social, economic, along with the political realms. The main
ideology of neo-liberalism endeavours to restructure the practices of the state by conceiving the
issue as rational, independent, and decision-making along with accountability principle (Bell &
Green, 2016). Neo-liberalism has the intention of limiting the relation of the government to the
marketplace. The paradigm of neo-liberalism is founded on the conviction in the efficiency of
the free marketplace plus the acceptance of policies, which place important on the deregulation,
and privatization of the public segment, then replace with collective provision via a more
residualist welfare state. The ideology of neo-liberalism has been found to be in conflict with
socially reasonable sharing of power and wealth, especially among the Indigenous people in
Australia. Neoliberals see citizens mainly as normal consumers of public products with
healthcare being among these products (Roberts-Thomson, Do, Bartold, Daniels, Grosse &

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Meihubers, 2014). This implies that this philosophy stresses on the person and joint roles other
than on the rights. The view fails to differentiate between roles of citizens as consumers in
addition to citizens. This is the case for Indigenous in Australia where the policies developed
through neoliberal perspectives have not recognized the rights of the Indigenous people in access
of quality and safe care that is fundamental for their progress (Labonté & Stuckler, 2016).
The neoliberal model is considered to critically impact the majority of modern reforms in
the healthcare sector in Australia. The design along with the execution of the healthcare reforms
have been influenced considerably by neoliberal ideologies in Australia. The idea of the
neoliberals is that the government lacks effectiveness whilst private sector marketplaces are most
cost-effective, as well as consumer-friendly. The healthcare system reforms in Australia by the
centre-left Hawke-Keating Government (1983-96), as well as centre-right Howard government
(1997-2007) established novel insurance regulations motivated by neoliberal ideologies, which
endeavoured to determine conflicts between the public plus private health insurance plans
because of these transformations, consumers of healthcare have been changed into consumers
whereby there has been a growing stress on co-payment systems for healthcare services. These
reforms have been seen to negatively affect the access to the primary by the Indigenous people in
Australia (Boxall, 2010).
Given that discrimination and cost, for instance, for offering a healthy diet to Indigenous
people will influence choices regarding the health issues that face them. Unconscious bias
towards the dominant neoliberal view, which emphasizes on individual accountability to make
informed health decisions, does not consider the social context of the Indigenous people, which
compromise those decisions and additionally disadvantage these people who are presently

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marginalized in Australia in health matters. Given that the Indigenous people in Australia are
often held accountable by the neoliberal ideology for not making the correct choices and thus
tacitly blamed, mirrors the invisibility of privilege that disregards power relations inherent in the
wider structural factors, which disadvantage Indigenous people (Schrecker, 2016).
Health Outcomes for Indigenous Australians
Jamieson, Sayers & Roberts-Thomson (2010) believe that the poor health and inadequate
access to services persist across the life-span for Indigenous people in Australia raising questions
of where the real problem lies. In spite of government dedications to improve health,
inequalities, as well as considerable morbidity, persist suggesting the existence of a complex
problem that needs innovative solutions. Whilst several healthcare providers want to improve
service delivery to advance access to healthcare for Indigenous persons, the reality in many
healthcare settings is that demands for quality along with organizational effectiveness compete
(Jamieson, Sayers & Roberts-Thomson, 2010). There are frequently little resources or time
allocated to understanding the special health needs of Indigenous plus hurdles for offering
quality primary care in addition to follow-up care. Thus, reducing health inequalities demands
the elements of fairness plus social justice for the effective delivery of quality care. Whilst
Australia presently experiences an economic boom and mining corporation registering huge
profits, it is a condemnation that Indigenous people in Australia stay distinctly and incessantly
poor, with health considerably worse as compared with other Australians. Thus, in the present
neo-liberal atmosphere, the marketplace has become the overall measure of social actions, which
values plus reinforces policies of caring for other people. This strengthens a conviction that there
is no option to neo-liberalism. Rather, what is efficiently “wilful blindness” supports the collapse

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to acknowledge plus rectify the truth of a balance sheet between unequal losses of Indigenous
persons with the benefits of accruing to privileged groups, not least already mining corporations
(Mladenov, 2015).
The present neoliberal political and economic atmosphere has more and more
concentrated on individual duty to make favourable wellbeing and way of life decisions
(Schrecker & Bambra, 2015). The neoliberal focus on individual accountability for wellbeing
reproduces the conversation that Indigenous persons are seen as a problem for making good
health choices or not complying with specialist counsel to progress their wellbeing. This has
greatly affected the access to primary care by these people-Aboriginals.-and their health status
has remained worse because of the policies by neoliberals that focus on individual decisions
rather than the welfare of the entire population.
Biomedical Model
Biomedical model or medical model entails theories other than a distinctive, single
hypothetical standpoint and comprises theories of medicine, and biology plus other fields. The
biomedical model is rooted in positivism along with empiricism and hence, stresses reduction,
observation, verification, prediction, and control along with impartiality in the unearthing of
understanding. Empiricism is powerfully connected to the expansion of liberal political
philosophy and neo-liberalism, liberalism’s contemporary equal exercises considerable impact in
biomedical model. With the supremacy of the biomedical viewpoints in healthcare, access to
plus inequalities in access to health services are mainly comprehended via a biomedical
perspective. With the influence of neo-liberalism and its primary principle of individualism in

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biomedicine, admittance tends to be perceived at the stage of the person (McMillan, Schultz &
Thompson, 2018).
There is a relationship between neoliberal values have interfaced with other influential
discourses, particularly that of a biomedical model of health that continues to shape policies in
Indigenous health. There is considerable congruence between the values along with the
assumptions, which underpin biomedicine and neoliberal ideology (Durey, Bessarab & Slack-
Smith, 2016). Consequently, the political shift towards neo-liberalism in the latest years have
increased individualized, biomedical approach to health service along with program delivery and
a behavioural advance to health promotion for the health of the Indigenous people. The
neoliberal model for reform in healthcare in Australia for Indigenous people has fashioned
diverse problems in dealing with Indigenous health disadvantage, as well as frustrated the
implementation of more effective policy strategies. There is little proof to indicate that an
individualized, biomedical model may support considerable improvements in the health of the
Indigenous people and social outcomes (McMillan et al., 2018).
Neo-liberalism Impact on Health Practitioners
Founded on the unrelenting health inequalities faced by Aboriginal persons in Australia,
comprising disparities in access to healthcare, a number of nursing academics have queried our
critical dependence on biomedical viewpoints, challenging us as nurses to unveil assumptions
plus question the roots of the nursing know-how. The neoliberal view has made it hard for the
health practitioners to provide collective and holistic care because of the ideology of neo-
liberalism emphasis individualistic nature of delivering cares (Pease, 2010). In many instances,

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this makes hard for nurses and other healthcare professionals to provide inadequate care to
Indigenous peoples. Neo-liberalism impacts the manner the health care experts and practitioners
provide healthcare services to different consumers in the healthcare sector, especially to
Indigenous people. The hegemonic standing of biomedical viewpoints in healthcare plus the
ensuing failure to recognize the power of the political, historical, as well as social backgrounds
plus intrinsic power dynamics, lead to an imperfect thoughtful of how several issues, which
include access to health services by the Aboriginal people are influenced (Rotarou &
Sakellariou,2017). The neoliberal policies have forced health practitioners to shift from the social
aspect from the traditional values along with cultural practice towards mainstream modernism
that has affected the way they provide care to Indigenous people.
In addition, the neoliberal views have made many nurses shift to the private sector where
these institutions will provide a market-based approach and this will make hard for these
professionals in nursing to focus on helping the Indigenous people. This has continued to widen
the health disparity gap amid the Indigenous and non-indigenous persons in Australia. The
healthcare professionals have shifted their energy to policies that will promote the interests of the
individual nurses rather than the larger health requirements of the Indigenous population. The
health practitioners have been diverted by the growing influence of neoliberal view towards
offering the needed care to the patients, especially from the marginalized communities. The
Aboriginals have been affected by the neoliberal policies because it fails to provide a framework
for healthcare professionals to provide the necessary care (Johnstone & Kanitsaki, 2009).
Conclusions

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The ongoing health inequalities between Indigenous and non-indigenous people in
Australia call into question the efficiency of the neoliberal model putting the responsibility on
individuals to make optimum health decisions. The neoliberal policies have been criticized in
their lack to address the persistent health inequalities among the Indigenous people in Australia.
Thus, implicit assumptions of level playing ground for all Australians are supported when social,
historic, as well as economic contexts of Indigenous people’s lives, which inform choices, are
disregarded. Neo-liberalism may actually make Indigenous people sick by not addressing
structural inequalities that underpin health decisions (Starfield, 2011). Responding properly to
poor health for Indigenous people in Australia as a “wicked” challenge considers the social
context of their lives, this is informed by wider structural issues. Neo-liberalism ideologies have
not served the Indigenous people adequately because it introduces policies of individual
responsibility and takes charge of their health decisions. This has continued to negatively impact
the health of the Indigenous people in Australia as the current health system do not cater to the
needs of this population. There is a need for the Australian government to redress the neo-liberal
policies and develop all-inclusive policies to meet the health needs of the Indigenous people.

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