Equity In Health

1897 Words8 Pages
Having good health is a fundamental right of every human being. Money, race, religion, culture or the environment should not determine the quality of your health. As obviously correct as this belief sounds it is surprising to see that it is not a universal one. Stranger yet is the fact that nations chanting equity are in practice very inequitable. Unfortunately Australia, like many other countries, has fallen into the same trap. Why is this the case even though equity is the biggest concern for public health? Why is this the case even after the World Health Organisation reverently adores the belief? To understand the lack of inequity in our modern society it is necessary to analyse two issues. The first is that equity is not necessarily a universal belief and the second is that health is a complicated, multi-dimensional assest that is affected by factors as various as policy, environment and socioeconomic status. Considering this nature of health, management needs to take place simultaneously in all fields of life making it very difficult to manage individual health, let alone population health. Equity in a large part is determined by the way a country perceives health. The ideals, values and ethics of a particular country affect the way individuals receive health. This is particularly the case for the developed world. There seem to be two main perspectives on health. The first one diplays a general interest in the well-being of others. There is a concern that are all members of society getting equal quality of care and are factors such as money, race and environment determining health. The difference in the second perspective is "that people are less interested in making sure everyone gets care than that those who can get it get great care. People want opportunity, not equity. That’s what they think is fair.” (Leeder, 2003, p.475). As a result of these modes of
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