Health Economics: Comparing Healthcare Systems of India and Australia

This essay provides a comparative analysis of the healthcare systems in India and Australia, highlighting the distinct challenges faced by each country. In India, issues such as neglect of rural populations, reliance on imported healthcare systems, social inequalities, inconsistent health outlays, and a shortage of healthcare personnel are discussed. The essay contrasts India's low government funding for healthcare with Australia's mixed public (Medicare) and private (health insurance) funding model. It recommends that India adopt strategies from Australia, such as increasing the number of healthcare professionals, focusing on rural healthcare, and prioritizing treatment for specific ailments to reduce costs. The essay concludes by advocating for increased public spending in India, the elimination of corruption in medical delivery, and ensuring that allocated medicines reach patients at affordable prices. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running head: HEALTH ECONOMICS 1
Health economics
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HEALTH ECONOMICS 2
Introduction
Diverse jurisdictions have different health care systems and channels of its delivery to the
patients. The health care professionals use diverse principles in finding the solutions to their
challenges that they face on different occasions. Some countries have different kinds of support
for the health covers for their patients. For instance, Australia has both the publicly funded care
(Medicare) and the privately funded care (insurance covers). Other countries have other kinds of
health funding. In this essay, we shall be presenting on the comparison between the health care
system of Australia and that of India.
Question ONE: Issues facing the health care systems
These two countries have distinct challenges that they face on the daily basis. In India,
there are several issues that its health care sector faces including the following. India has a
problem of neglecting the people living in the rural areas, use of imported systems of health care,
inequality in social issues, an inconsistent outlay of health, and the lack of enough health
personnel. Other issues that they face include the high cost of health care, poor infrastructure,
and inadequate medical research on tropical diseases even though the Homeopathy, Ayurveda,
and Unani systems are put in place (Kavitha, Kannan, & Kotteswaran, 2016).
Question TWO: Government contribution to health care systems in these countries
The health care funding by the government is very low as only a fifth of the
government’s allocated funds reach and support the low-income citizens if the country. In
addition, the cost of medicines is very high and varies from one drug to another (Golechha,
2015). This fact means that the poor persons in the country do not access these medical services

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by the government. However, if they really have to access these medical services, they are forced
to spend all their resources so as to stay alive.
On the other hand, Australia funds its health care by the combination of both the private
(health insurance covers) and the publicly funded (Medicare) for the citizens (Almutairi & Al
Shamsi, 2018). In addition, the country has got other covers for the medical aspects including
motor vehicle cover, employee compensation schemes, and the cover for the indigenous
Australians.
Question THREE: Health care strategies to be adopted
Since India has got a poor health care system and funding than the Australian, it is
effective if the country adopts several strategies from Australia such as having many health
professionals. Secondly, the Indian government should increase their focus on people living in
the rural areas to ensure that even care is distributed. Finally, India should focus on the treatment
of certain ailments to lower the health care costs.
Recommendation
India must make some changes to its health care including the increase in its public
spending and allocation on the public accessed care (Srinivasan, 2010). Secondly, the corrupt
medical delivery system should be abolished. This act will ensure that the allocated medicines
reach the targeted patients at a lower price rather than being sold on the counters of different
pharmacies (Pandve & Pandve, 2013).

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References
Almutairi, A. G., & Al Shamsi, H. (2018). Healthcare System Accessibility in the Face of
Increasing Privatisation in Saudi Arabia: Lessons From Australia. Global Journal of
Health Science, 10(7), 111.
Golechha, M. (2015). Healthcare agenda for the Indian government. The Indian journal of
medical research, 141(2), 151.
Kavitha, R., Kannan, E., & Kotteswaran, S. (2016). Implementation of cloud based Electronic
Health Record (EHR) for Indian healthcare needs. Indian Journal of Science and
Technology, 9(3).
Pandve, H. T., & Pandve, T. K. (2013). Primary healthcare system in India: Evolution and
challenges. International Journal of Health System and Disaster Management, 1(3), 125.
Srinivasan, R. (2010). Health Care in India-Vision 2020. New Delhi, India: Government of India,
Planning Commission of India, 1.