Australian Health Care System Analysis

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The Australian Health Care System An outline September 2000 The Australian Health Care System An Outline Financing and Analysis Branch Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care September 2000 This document describes how treatment of illness and injury is delivered and paid for in Australia, with emphasis on the funding role of the Federal Government. i © Commonwealth of Australia 2000 ISBN 0 642 44730 6 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth available from AusInfo. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Manager, Legislative…show more content…
Settlement of Australia, by people now known as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or Indigenous Australians, occurred some tens of thousands of years ago. Settlement by people from Great Britain and subsequently other countries began in 1788 resulting in a present day population of about 18.7 million with a diversity of ethnic backgrounds. About 80 per cent of the population lives in cities. There are large regions which have only small, scattered settlements or are unpopulated. Australia is a developed country with a generally high standard of living. System of government In the nineteenth century, Australia was governed as a number of British colonies. Since 1901 Australia has been an independent nation having a federal system of government, with origins in the British system of government and law. The Constitution established a Commonwealth (federal) Government, giving its Parliament powers in specified fields. Each of the six States and two Territories within the Commonwealth has a…show more content…
The rate of Medicare benefit for medical treatment provided while a private patient is in hospital is 75 per cent of the Medicare Benefits Schedule fee. The safety net does not apply to Medicare benefits for in-hospital services. Registered private health insurers offer Medicare-eligible patients insurance for the difference between 75 per cent and 100 per cent of the Schedule fee, together with additional benefits for hospital accommodation and other hospital charges. Private specialist doctors’ services under Medicare For some kinds of medical services, Medicare requires that the service be provided by a doctor who has been formally recognised as a specialist, and that another doctor has referred the patient to the specialist. If these requirements are not met, either no benefit is payable or the benefit is lower. For most pathology and diagnostic imaging services, Medicare benefits are paid only when another doctor has referred the patient to the doctor providing the pathology or imaging service. These requirements are in place in order to constrain costs by removing financial incentives to obtain unnecessary specialist services. As a consequence, most access

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