Health Care Reform In Australia

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Healthcare reform usually aims to broaden the population that receive healthcare coverage, expand the options of healthcare providers, improve accessibility, improve quality of care, and decrease the cost of healthcare. It is necessary to carry out health reform as a strong primary healthcare system has been shown to reduce cost, increase accessibility, improve patient’s health outcome, and increase patient’s satisfaction regarding their care (Macinko et al, 2003). In 2007-08, Australia spent 8.8% of gross domestic product on healthcare (AIHW, 2010). The Australian government funds public hospitals, residential aged care facilities as well as providing funding for major researches and support in training health professionals. These resulted in Australian…show more content…
This may have occurred due to the variation of fund utilisation across Australia, which is caused by the lack of systematic review and analysis of appropriateness of care (Richardson, 1998). The groups of non-English speaking backgrounds, Torres Strait Islanders and Aborigines encounter cultural insensitivity in the healthcare system as well as difficulty communicating (Duckett, 1984). This results in dissatisfaction with the system among these groups (Reid et al, 1995). The lack of cooperative actions between Commonwealth and state in the intervention of chronic diseases development has lead to the failure of developing appropriate financial incentive. Workforce reform should also be considered to promote technical efficacy as it is clearly demonstrate in rural Australia that shortages of general practitioners has lead experiences nurses to up-skill to provide larger range of primary care services to reduce the burden of general practitioners. These had lead to overburdening staffs with excess hours. (Duckett,

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