Politics Health Insurance Policy

Question: Discuss about the Politics for Health Insurance Policy. Answer: Historical Development of the Medicare Policy The Australian health insurance policy is such a health insurance policy that is being funded by the Commonwealth and it allows the Australian population to receive free hospital services from the public hospital (Aihw.gov.au. 2016). The Medicare policy of Australia was first introduced by the Whitlam Labor Government, Medibank started in Australia, in the year 1975 under the Whitlam Labor Government. Before the Medibank was set up in Australia, in the year 1974, Medibank legislation was passed in the same year. The Health Insurance Bill that helped in establishing the Medibank was passed in the year 1973, although it was not the only Bill that helped in establishing the Medibank but there are several other bills as well that helped in establishing it (Boxall and Gillespie 2013). The other bills that accompanied the health Insurance Bill include the Health Insurance Commission Bill and this particular bill too helped in establishing the Medibank in Australia. In this process there we re many such bills that were rejected, and later on all these bills helped in establishing the Medibank in the country for the public in Australia (Dunbar, Jayawardena, Johnson, Roger, Timoshanko, Versace, Shill, Philpot, Vartiainen, Laatikainen and Best 2014). The Medibank that was set up by the Whitlam Labor Government in Australia soon experienced a fall. The fall or the dismissal of the Medibank took place under the new government of Australia, which was a coalition government of the Liberal and the National party (Faichney and Moore 2013). The coalition government set up a review committee, although most of the findings, rather all the findings of the review committee were not revealed to the public (Kay and Boxall 2015). The new Medibank II was established in the year 1976, and this new Medibank II charged 2.5% levy on the public, whereas in case of the previous Medibank such was not in the case (Sharman, Hensher, Wilkinson, Campbell and Venn 2015). The old Medibank charged 1.5% levies on the public income, although in case of this new Medibank the population in Australia. The people are allowed to use the private health insurances at the same time, and these health insurances too helped the public in availing proper health care servi ces from the hospitals (Aihw.gov.au. 2016). The change that is being introduced by the Liberal-National government of Australia also went through a change, in the year 1984, when the Hawke Labor Government came to the power. The Hawke Labor government introduced the previous or the original Medibank that was set up by the Whitlam Labor Government (Gray 2016). The financial arrangement although, went through certain changes along with the name. It was no longer termed as Medibank rather a new name is offered to this Medibank and that is Medicare. The financial arrangement of this particular Medicare policy included receiving public funding, or the 1% of the total income of the people as a levy, for this particular health insurance policy (Gardner, Yen, Banfield, Gillespie, Mcrae and Wells 2013). According to by Dr Blewett, the particular policy referred as something that would help in social reform. The reason behind saying this is the fact that the levy was imposed upon those people who are capable of earning $7110 per annum i f they are single and if they are married the amount is around $111803. People having an income level below this should not have to pay any levy to have an access to the health insurance (Harris 2016). The Australian government in the year 1996 introduced the 1 percent Medicare Levy Surcharge for those who are having an annual income of around $100,000. The personal having an annual income of $100,000 but not having any private health insurance could use this policy the 1% Medicare levy surcharge. In the year 1997, along with the Medicare Levy Surcharge the Australian government introduced the Private Health Insurance Incentive Scheme (Aihw.gov.au. 2016). The particular scheme, allowed the public to have rebate on hospital and ancillary health insurances. Critical Discussion of the Key issues andissue drivers within the Policy The health system in Australia is as complex as a spiders web and on this web there are different people on the different sides. On the one side there are the services, and on the other side thereare the service providers; the recipient and the structure of the organization lies on the two very different sides of the web (Sharman, Hensher, Wilkinson, Campbell and Venn, 2015). It is inevitable to escape these complexities and one of the major reasons behind this is that the complexities are there because, of the fact that the health system of the policy is based on the varied needs and diversity that is there in the country (Gardner, Yen, Banfield, Gillespie, Mcrae and Wells 2013). Thus, it is one of the key drivers that are there within the policy and the major drivers of the health policy of Australia includes; the gender, age, culture, socio-economical and even the behavioral and the health history of the people. The health policy, regulation, legislation all could go at a pace bec ause of the good governance that is being carried out by the people working in the health system of Australia (Foster and Mitchell 2015). In the year 2011 and 2012, the amount of money that is being spend by the Australians, is 1.7 times more than the money that is being spend by the Australians in the year 2001 and 2002 (Gray 2016). Today, the Australians spend almost 9.5% of the total GDP in health system. Along with this particular fact, another important fact should be remembered and that is, the health expenses in Australia have increased, and the increase is more than the population growth of the country. The major challenge that the Australia Medicare system faces is related to the challenges that are being faced by the Australian health care system. The reason behind this is the fact that the Australian health care system often goes through lots of reformation and thus it has an effect on the Medicare system (Aph.gov.au. 2016). In the recent years the most important problem that has been faced by the Australian health care system is the problem of increase in the average high life expectancy rate and a decrease in the average low infant mortality rate. Thus, there has been a growth of both the ageing population and the chronic illness, which requires immediate treatment (Aihw.gov.au. 2016). Along with these two problems the problem of inequalities between the most and the least advantaged people is there as well. The Australian governments aim is to provide services to each people in the country, and there should not be any kind of compromise for any people of any socio-economic bac kground in the country. Thus, in case of identifying the major drivers of the policy these points should be kept in the mind because these points act as a major driver of the Medicare policy that is there in Australia, and that provide financial benefits to the people living in Australia (Jolley, Freeman, Baum, Hurley, Lawless, Bentley, Labontand Sanders2014). The Medicare policy in Australia is designed in such a way that if a person visits the public hospital then the patient will be provided free treatment, and they would be treated as public patents. According to the Australian Healthcare Agreement the finding cost of the public patient will be handled by the Australian Federal, as well as by the State and the Territory government of Australia (Aph.gov.au. 2016). In case of the private patients the Medicare policy would provide 75% of the total schedule fees. The structure of funding may look as simple as this but it is not that simple. The Australian health care system consists of a complex web; which include those factors that act as a major driver of the policy (Baum and Dwyer 2014). The factors that are there in the health care system of Australiaincludetwo different kinds of health care, the primary and the secondary. The primary health care is something that is most of the time avail by the people and often the treatment that is being provided to the people are provided in a different setting other than the hospital (Foster and Mitchell 2015). The various settings where the particular health care system is being provided include the places where the physicians carry on their general practices (Javanparast, Baum, Barton, Freeman, Lawless, Fuller, Reed and Kidd 2015). The primary health care could be provided in the Aboriginal and Community Control health care centre and it could even be provided in the other community health care centre as well (Sharman, Hensher, Wilkinson, Campbell and Venn 2015). In the year 2011 and 2012, almost 36.1% of the total expenditure of the Australian population is spend for the primary health care services; whereas the total amount the population has spend on the hospital services is around 38.2%. It is one of the most important driver, or key issues behind the Medicare policy that is there in the country (Harris 2016). The second important key issues or the drivers of the Medicare policy are related to the secondary health care system. The secondary health care systemis unlike the primary health care system, where all kinds of other services are related to it (Aph.gov.au. 2016). In the secondary health care system there are specialists, who are referred by the people in the primary health care system. Along with the services provided by the specialists the secondary health care system includes the services that are being provided by the hospitals at the same time (Javanparast, Baum, Barton, Freeman, Lawless, Fuller, Reed and Kidd 2015). Therefore, the secondary health care system is the most important driver or the issues that plays an important role in the Medicare policy. The hospitals too play an important role in influencing the Medicare policy in Australia. The country has both the private and the public hospitals and the rate of hospitalization has increased in the year 2011 and 2012. In the year 2011 and 2012, the rate of hospitalization increased from 4.6 million to 9.3 million (Dunbar, Jayawardena, Johnson, Roger, Timoshanko, Versace, Shill, Philpot, Vartiainen, Laatikainen and Best 2014). The rate of hospitalization in the year 2010 and 2011 is 4.6 million, whereas in the year 2011 and 2012, the rate of hospitalization is around 9.3 million (Faichney and Moore 2013). Along with the increase in the rate of hospitalization, there has been an increase in the rate of emergency department as well. The rate of emergency department in the year 2012 and 2013 is around 6.7 million (Javanparast, Baum, Barton, Freeman, Lawless, Fuller, Reed and Kidd 2015). Evaluation of the Medicare Policy The Medicare policy in Australia is a debatable topic and this particular topic became the issue of the political election every year (Harris 2016). In the present scenario the changes that has been brought to the country with the Medicare policy is more or less positive (Ivythesis.typepad.com. 2016). The co-payments, which is being provided to the public of Australia over the or above the Medicare rebate has increased, and this increase in rebate has taken place in the past 20 years. Along with it there has been reimbursement of the specialist care with the Medicare (Aph.gov.au. 2016). The Medicare policy in Australia consists of both the strengths and the weaknesses, and these strengths and weaknesses have been discussed below: Strengths: 1. Most of the funds that the Medicare policy in Australia receives come either from the federal government or from the state and the territory government (Gray2016). Thus, most of the time people receives health care services at free of cost. Therefore, people of all the cultures, socio-economic background and even the immigrants of the country could avail the health care services at free of cost and they do not have to pay much to receive the health care services (Boxall and Gillespie 2013). 2. The particular fact that the Medicare system is the countrys high budget system proves that the country provides highest priority to the health care system (Baum and Dwyer2014). The message is a positive message for the people living in the country and thus, with the increase in the ageing population and with the increase in the chronic illness, the Medicare policy act as a driver that would help in providing health care security to the people living in the country (typepad.com. 2016). 3. The Medicare policy is such a social policy in the country, which is being used by the majority of the people living in the country (Gardner, Yen, Banfield, Gillespie, Mcrae. and Wells 2013). The particular policy allows the maximum number of people to receive treatment from the general practitioners or from the GP. The Medicare policy also allows the public to receive free treatments from the medical specialists at the same time (Baum and Dwyer 2014). Weaknesses 1. The Medicare policy in Australia has gone through lots of changes since 1976, and it has always being the centre of political debate as well. Thus, it is one of the most important weaknesses of the Medicare policy along with the complexities that are there in the system (Faichney and Moore 2013). The Medicare policy involves a complex system and these at times are not very helpful for the public in Australia. Thus, it adds to the negativity or rather to the weaknesses of this particular policy (Dunbar, Jayawardena, Johnson, Roger, Timoshanko, Versace, Shill, Philpot, Vartiainen, Laatikainen and Best 2014). 2. The continuous structural changes in the Medicare policy could affect the policy to a great extend and not only that the continuous change in the structure of the policy could actually increase the public expenditure at the same time (typepad.com. 2016). 3. In Australia, many times the Medicare policy is being utilized in a wrong way, especially by the hospitals (Kay and Boxall 2015). As a result of which, there are many hospitals in the country, which the government has decided to close down because they have not paid the medical supply bills (Sharman, Hensher, Wilkinson, Campbell and Venn 2015). Thus, the Medicare policy in Australia is a policy that has gone through many changes and will be going through many changes in the future as well. The particular policy helps the public in Australia in more than one way (Kay and Boxall 2015). There are truly, certain drawbacks of this particular policy but there are some accompanying policies as well such as the Medicare Levy Surcharge policy and the Medicare Rural Bond Scheme that try to provide the best support to the Medicare policy that is there in the country (Gray2016). References Aihw.gov.au. (2016). Australia's health system (AIHW). Aph.gov.au. (2016). Medicare - Background Brief Parliament of Australia. Baum, F. and Dwyer, J., 2014. The accidental logic of health policy in Australia. Australian public policy: Progressive ideas in the neoliberal ascendency, pp.187-207. Boxall, A.M. and Gillespie, J., 2013. Making Medicare: the politics of universal health care in Australia. UNSW Press. Dunbar, J.A., Jayawardena, A., Johnson, G., Roger, K., Timoshanko, A., Versace, V.L., Shill, J., Philpot, B., Vartiainen, E., Laatikainen, T. and Best, J.D., 2014. Scaling up diabetes prevention in Victoria, Australia: policy development, implementation, and evaluation. Diabetes Care, 37(4), pp.934-942. Faichney, M.K. and Moore, M., 2013. Public Health Association of Australia submission on Review of Medicare Locals. Foster, M.M. and Mitchell, G.K., 2015. The onus is on me: primary care patient views of Medicare funded team care in chronic disease management in Australia. Health Expectations, 18(5), pp.879-891. Gardner, K., Yen, L., Banfield, M., Gillespie, J., Mcrae, I. and Wells, R., 2013. From coordinated care trials to medicare locals: what difference does changing the policy driver from efficiency to quality make for coordinating care?. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 25(1), pp.50-57. Gray, G. (2016). Health policy in Australia. Australian Policy Online. Harris, M. (2016). Who gets the care in Medicare?. Ivythesis.typepad.com. (2016). SWOT Analysis to Health Care System of Australia, US, China and Model of Care for Hong Kong Health Service System. Javanparast, S., Baum, F., Barton, E., Freeman, T., Lawless, A.P., Fuller, J., Reed, R.L. and Kidd, M.R., 2015. Medicare Local-Local Health Network partnerships in South Australia: lessons for Primary Health Networks. Jolley, G., Freeman, T., Baum, F., Hurley, C., Lawless, A., Bentley, M., Labont, R. and Sanders, D., 2014. Health policy in South Australia 200310: primary health care workforce perceptions of the impact of policy change on health promotion. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 25(2), pp.116-124. Kay, A. and Boxall, A.M., 2015. Success and Failure in Public Policy: Twin Imposters or Avenues for Reform? Selected Evidence from 40 Years of Health care Reform in Australia*. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 74(1), pp.33-41. Sharman, M.J., Hensher, M., Wilkinson, S., Campbell, J.A. and Venn, A.J., 2015. Review of Publicly-Funded Bariatric Surgery Policy in AustraliaLessons for More Comprehensive Policy Making. Obesity surgery, pp.1-8.