The following paper is about the healthcare system in Australia and the influence of power and hierarchy in it. It is an obvious fact that health is a very integral factor in every country and the government is directly responsible for the things that happen in the healthcare system. Their role is to make sure that the patients get the proper treatment and they come round within a certain period of time. Besides that they should also make sure that they should be giving the patients an equal opportunity so that the patients are treated well despite their poor economical condition. However, these are the ethical things that are not maintained properly in Australia. The impact of power and hierarchy has a huge say in determining who will get the proper treatment and who will not. It is known to everyone that with power comes the money. If the power and money is not utilized in the positive sense the negative impacts will come out at a certain point of time for sure. In this course, the problems and hazards that are caused because of the misuse power and hierarchy will be discussed here. The probable outcomes that can happen for this have to be analyzed because most of the lower income families are deprived of the opportunities just because they do not have the proper networks to connect with the powerful persons who influence the healthcare system in Australia (Currie et al., 2012).
Healthcare facilities in Australia are generally provided by the government run or privatized hospitals in Australia. The universal healthcare system in Australia is known to be Medicare. The federal government in Australia offers several schemes for the people in Australia. This scheme is known as the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (“Department of Health | Welcome to the Department of Health”, 2017). The people, who come under the various insurance policies related to the healthcare, can avail the benefits as well. The federal minister for Health is Mr. Greg Hunt who has been supervising the healthcare matters for the government.
The Medicare scheme by the federal government has helped many patients who cannot afford the healthcare costs properly (“Department of Health | Welcome to the Department of Health”, 2017). The Medicare benefits schedule can cover the healthcare costs of the patients as it provides leverage to the patients and pays a certain percent of the total costs in favor of the patients. This scheme is obviously very much helpful for the families of the patients. However, certain medical points are not covered within this scheme. The health insurance is one of the main factors in the Australian healthcare system. The funding of the health insurance is provided by the government and supported by the private health insurance benefits. The Australian GDP is greatly affected by the health insurance policies (“Department of Health | Welcome to the Department of Health”, 2017).
However, coming back to the talking point about the healthcare system, it can be asserted that the power and hierarchy has left its mark on the healthcare system (“Department of Health | Welcome to the Department of Health”, 2017). The workforce in the Australian medical system is quite good and they provide a quality care in this aspect as well. It has been seen that Australia is one of the very few countries who can provide quality healthcare to its patients. The rural healthcare reports have been quite impressive as well. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has seen through the problems in the healthcare system and they have tried their best efforts to come up with the best possible policies. The non-government organizations like the Australian Red Cross Blood Donation Service have been arranging blood donation camps at several places for the betterment of the lives of the people. The disabled people are well cared as well. These perspectives cannot be overlooked although the hierarchy issues are something to be concerned about.
Changes in demography
The demographic changes in relation to the Australian healthcare system have been immense because is a challenge to all the people in the country to avail the costly treatment processes (Spector, 2012). The ageing population of the country faces most of the problems regarding health. The Australian government has faced the major challenges like the decrease in voter numbers because if they determine to bring the changes in the Medicare system, they may lose some of the voters instantly. The budgets have been increasing very recently and that has become to be a burden for the government itself. They lack the efficient systems that can address the changes in the Medicare system.
The cost in the healthcare system has increase a lot in the last few years and the use of technological equipments to make the lives of the people healthy has made a huge cause for worry in this matter (Chandra & Skinner, 2012). The 21st century technological breakthrough has improved the quality of health services in great many ways but also increased the costs as well. That has been a major concern for the people. It can also be said that the powerful people have money and they are likely to use their power and money to get the best treatments (Currie et al., 2012).
The healthcare system in Australia has improved a lot in the past few years. This can be addressed in the lower mortality rates that the latest published reports have produced. The disease management controlling system has become all the more efficient and the workforce is much more skilled. It is a concern over the country that these facilities are not shared across the country in equal measures (Zwar et al., 2017). The difference comes in the fact the more affluent people have got the best chances of affording the quality treatment than the less affluent people. This is one of the major concerns because it is expected that the government should provide equal medical facilities to all the groups of people, irrespective of their financial conditions (Thompson, 2016).
It should be remembered that the public and private organizations should always join hands so that they can work together in order to provide best healthcare facilities (Denton, 2013). It is their social responsibility as well. It is a clear notion in Australia that the healthcare system could have worked better if it was left to the market activities. The income from the private sectors has been one of the major earning sources of the country. This means the business activities have to be looked after well. It is, therefore, clear that the people who possess a good amount of money will get the best treatments just because they possess that money. On the contrary, the less affluent people will not be able to receive that much good treatment because they do not have that much money at their possession (Kongstvedt, 2012).
The Australian healthcare system has many disadvantages within it. This is because the federal government has not been able to bring many changes to the problems that have been concurrent with the system (Grol et al., 2013). They have identified these problems and should be going to resolve them.
Some sociological theories of healthcare should be discussed in this segment because it is important to understand that the society is the inseparable part of the human lives and the society has to be an important part of discussion when healthcare is in jeopardy (Gabe & Monaghan, 2013). Some of the main theories that can be attributed to healthcare in terms of sociology are positivism and social medicine, functionalism, social construction, postmodernism, critical theory and others.
This theory emphasizes on the fact that society has to be viewed from the physical terms and perhaps from the context of the medical terms as well (Cockerham, 2014). The estimations of people change with their age as well as it changes as per their gender and race. The positivist concerns deal with the pain caused by burns or cuts record passive responses from the people. There are various kinds of reactions recorded for the people like the certain characteristics, certain beliefs that are superficial, passive mindsets and other things always bring in a new experience for the actors. The societal and medical perspectives are united in this context. This is effective in case of all the people. If these things are not properly handled, many problems can arise from it (Cockerham, 2014).
The main things that are the talking points for functionalism are it concerns that society is seen as a singular organism and the entire medical system must be full of principles and kind. The patients always wait for the doctors who would treat them with kindness and the right treatment process and the right medicines (Greenhalgh, 2013). The patients stay sick and they come round after a fair round of proper treatment by the doctors. All the patients should be looked after by the doctors in the same way and be cured. These are the basic principles that the doctors must abide by every time.
Another important theory in the medical perspective that connects with the social theories is social construction. This is a contrasting approach to positivism theory in many ways. According to this theory, it is believed that there are no singular truths in the system rather everything depends on the situation (Payne, 2015). No specific thing can be regarded as the solid gold or the exact truth because there might be different things that could be pertinent from different viewpoints as well. The people go through several experiences and then these experiences are gathered together to form a proper view. There are no neutral perspectives as such. The people believe that the medical practitioners who are part of the health system must talk with the patients properly and understand their problems (Payne, 2015). They should be much more humanistic in their approach. The patients’ minds are full of fears, hopes and other emotions. They should be looking to build a soft minded relationship with the healthcare system built on faith and trust. It is the duty of the doctors and the people within the medical system. However, these emotions are applicable in all groups of people. If this is not understood by the people in the system and they continue to favor the powerful people in hierarchy, the poor people will soon cease to exist.
The postmodernism theory related to healthcare system tells that the boundaries or the limitations must be brought down (Wuest, 2012). The implication is the fact that there should be no barriers between rich, powerful people and the less affluent people within the society. This theory always considers the fact that there is a mysterious relationship between the body and the mind. Experience is the factor that determines the changes the outlook of a person in the medical practice. It says that all the people should be looked at equally and should be treated in the same way.
After a thorough discussion about the Australian healthcare system it has been found that the Australian healthcare system has become biased in some senses. They have been favoring the hierarchy people and the people who have power of money. This should not be in practice since most of the people would be deprived of the facilities (Williams & Wyatt, 2015). All the people should be viewed in same way and be treated in the same way as the others are.
Conclusion
This paper can be concluded by saying that Australian healthcare system has been going through a moral downfall since the medical treatment or the facilities have become a favored service for them. The people who are powerful in terms of monetary power and belong to the hierarchy of the society are being favored by the hospitals and other medical centers. It is a concern because private medical facilities have regarded this as a business to much extent. This will hamper the health concerns of the less affluent people in the society. The medical facilities are such services that should be given to everyone in the society at a cheaper rate because everyone has the right to live healthy. If the more affluent sections are favored by the government or the private medical facilities, the less affluent and poor people will be under severe threat. Some of the sociological theories in context of medical or healthcare system have been discussed here also.
References
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