Relationship Between Health And Human Rights And Privatized Healthcare Systems In Australia

Is there a relationship between health and human rights?

Question 1: Is there a relationship between health and human rights?

Health is considered as a fundamental human right which is essential to exercise the other human rights. Every human is entitled to enjoy highest standard of health in order to live a healthy and dignified life. The human rights communities and health have been giving more attention to achieve the highest standard of health. The right to health has been incorporated in the international treaties and Constitutions that are binding upon its signatories. These provisions entitle individuals with the right to safe water and adequate sanitation (DeLaune et al., 2016). The recognition of the right to health may be followed through several approaches such as formulation of health policies or introduction of health programs developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) or the implementation of certain legal instruments.

The modern concept of health derives from two different although related disciplines, namely, public health and medicine. While medicine concentrates on the health of an individual, public health laid more emphasis in the health of the populations. The right to highest standard of health is a qualified right and is subject to both resource availability and progressive realization. However, the right imposes certain obligations with immediate effect which requires the state to prepare a national plan for health care and protection.

In Australia, the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights sets out the rights of patients and other medical professionals within the Australian health care systems. These rights ensure safety of the patients and guarantee that every person has access to the healthcare system and receives high quality care (Estes et al., 2013). The government of the country commits to international covenants and treaties with respect to the human rights that recognize the right of individuals to enjoy the highest standard of health, both physical and mental. Since the country has diverse culture and ways of life, the Charter ensures that the differences are respected and safeguarded.

While the right to highest standard of health entails the right to healthcare, it extends to include the essential factors of health such as the right to be free from any involuntary medical treatment or discrimination and the right to indispensible primary health care. These human rights has taken the vulnerable, disadvantaged and those living in poverty into consideration and entitles them to enjoy the highest standard of health without being discriminated on the ground of their physical disabilities and status (Mann, Bradley & Sahakian, 2016).

The International covenants and treaties does provide a link between human rights and health which stipulates that every individual is entitled to the highest standard of health, both physical and mental health and these conventions are means to attain the adequate standard of living. However, the national and the international human rights are ultimately at the disposal of the health professionals (Tomuschat, 2014). While the human rights communities and conventions makes significant contribution to attain the highest health standards. It is the responsibility of the national governments to ensure that the respective nations strive to endow its nationals with the highest standard of mental and physical health without any discrimination.

Do privatized healthcare systems deliver better healthcare?

Question 2: Do privatized healthcare systems deliver better healthcare?

Australia has accessible and affordable healthcare systems in the world. The Department of Health and Ageing of the Commonwealth strives to promote good health and ensures that every Australian citizens have access to key family and health services. Healthcare in the country is usually provided in one of the three ways:

• through private health insurance;
• through public health care system;
• through the expenses paid by the individuals out o their pockets directly;

The funding of the healthcare system is complex by nature and at present, the healthcare system is funded from the three essential sources:

• the Medicare levy;
• payments for private sector services;
• general taxes that are paid to various governmental levels;

The Public Health Insurance includes Medicare and the Private Health Insurance includes MBF, Medibank Private, etc. Medicare is a government funded health system that is paid through a Medicare levy on incomes and taxes. The Public healthcare system provides easy accessibility to every citizen and ensures equity in the healthcare services rendered to the patients (Hall, 2015). However, it suffers from certain deficiencies as well which includes compulsory levy even if the insurance is not used. The patients are not allowed to choose their doctors or hospitals and have to wait for a considerable time for any selective surgery.  

On the other hand, the privatized healthcare system provides the patients with the opportunity to choose their own doctors and hospitals. It also provides them with accommodation of their preference. The private healthcare insurance is perceived as a fundamental feature of a balanced healthcare system that includes both private and public funding and provides the patients with a choice to select their own doctor and hospital. People usually purchase private health insurance so that they are provided with medical professionals of their preferences and are allowed to use other hospital facilities of their choice (Morgan, Ensor & Waters, 2016).

It is usually believed that opting for privatized healthcare system would prevent the patients from long wait times for hospital procedures which imply that patients would receive medical treatment faster as compared to that of the public healthcare system. The shorter wait times is one of the significant factors, besides getting doctors and hospitals based on individual preferences, which makes the privatized healthcare system more preferable than the public healthcare system. Further, in private hospitals people get to “jump the queue” and have access to wide range of electric procedures (Weaver et al., 2016). Although the expenses under the privatized healthcare system is higher and at times the patients end up with unexpected and substantial out-pocket-expenses, but the long wait for obtaining suggestions or treatment for selective surgeries is shortened in the privatized healthcare system where the patients undergo surgeries within weeks instead of months matters more than the additional out-of-pocket-expenses.

Further, privatized healthcare system provides those services that are not covered by Medicare which includes physiotherapy, optical, chiropractic and other specific healthcare requirements.  However, both public and private health care systems have their respective strength and weaknesses but people who take a more proactive approach with respect to their health shall opt for privatized healthcare systems as it has access to widest range of available health services.

Question 1: Does racism inhibit provision of adequate nursing care?

Racism has been a significant issue in the nursing practice since ages. Nurses are often recruited to work in health institutions, residential aged care facilities and hospitals. Nurses, especially, the Overseas Recruited Nurses (ORN) often become subject to racism that have forced several nurses to quit their nursing practice. The practice of racism still persists in the healthcare system of Australia despite years of cultural safety education. Racism may be defined as a process whereby people are usually defined by their appearance, color, skin or ethnic background or simply because they look different from the majority of the population (Drummond et al., 2015).

Nursing is a profession that is primarily based on humanitarian efforts, hence, it is quite difficult to imagine that those who are in this profession are themselves becoming subject to racism. Racism has been prevailing in this profession sine the era of Nightingale and Seacole, yet it has still not been acknowledged (Willis, Reynold & Keleher, 2016). Several authors have agreed that experiences of racism may differ but there are general similarities as well. The primary reason for such negative experiences is basically the differences in the ethnic, cultural and racial background.

In the profession of nursing, racism is mostly expressed in a subtle manner by fellow patients, Caucasian nurses, and relatives of patients towards their nurses coming from different ethnic, racial or ethnic origin. Therefore, the nurses not only become subject to racism but also experience multidimensional racism from various people at their work (Wendt, 2014). The nurses often feel negligent but they felt they should remain silent and otherwise they would have to resign. The knowledge and training was considered as substandard which made them think that they were oppressed and bullied.

The nurse feels that the nursing profession is a ‘caring profession’ and remains to hold a high esteem, therefore they strive to prove themselves as qualified registered nurses. The nurses often deny that they have been subject to racism and this establishes the fact that racism is deeply rooted in the nursing profession. Further, remaining silent and not complaining about the racism is another tactic that the nurses usually use to survive; however, they are often treated in a way that they do not even exist. The managers often tactfully exclude them by not giving them any responsibilities. The act of racism often affects the nurses to an extent that it impacts their health adversely. Nursing requires the nurses to act diligently and provide best quality care to the patients. At times, the family or relatives of the patients often feel depressed and worry about the quality of healthcare services to be provided to the patients (Hunt et al., 2015).

These are the times, when a competent nurse assures the relatives of the family that the patients shall be provided with the best quality services. Thus, Nursing is a team work where each and every nurse must be supported and encouraged, thus, facilitating them to act diligently and providing best quality healthcare services to the patients. The nurses are responsible for providing the doctors with the health status of the patients from time to time and they are also responsible for providing the after care healthcare services to the patients, hence, their profession should be duly respected (Deaton, 2013). 

Question 2: Is economic inequality a threat to good health?

There has been a relationship between health and wealth where wealthy persons have always enjoyed better health as they dwelled in cleaner houses, and had facilities to move to other destinations when there is an outbreak of disease (Koutoukidis, Stainton & Hughson, 2016). The inequality in accessing health is considerably greater than the inequality in the income as several households which are considered to be above the poverty line are unable to afford the high expenses of dental care, medical specialist services, travel expenses and accommodation expenses for medical services etc.

Several studies reveal that there is a substantial shortage of aged care facilities, growing waiting lists for elective surgery and gross laxity in the mental health care facilities. The concept of ‘blame game’ is deeply rooted in the health related responsibilities between the Federal government and the States, where the states are accountable for numerous care facilities and hospitals while the federal government is in charge for the common practitioner services, dental care and other pharmaceutical benefits (Eckersley, 2015). 

The primary issue that arises due to the inequality in wealth is that not all the Australian citizens have access to the healthcare system that is provided by the Federal and the State government. The Federal and the state governments often blame each other for not being able to fulfill their respective responsibilities (Pickett & Wilkinson, 2015). At the Federal level, there are claims about the fact that the states are responsible for failing to reduce the inequality between the poor and the rich. The wealth created from the mass production, distribution, and communication lays down the foundation to eliminate or reduce the growing inequality between wealth and health through the two following ways:

• to encourage a more equitable distribution of wealth because of the availability of huge resources to reduce disparity;
• to lay more emphasis on the health care system (hospitals, doctors, pharmaceuticals, dental treatment, etc);

Both the Federal and the State governments may adopt the following measures to reduce the inequalities between wealth and health:

• reduce health welfare for the wealthy people and introduce means to test the private health insurance rebate;
• increase in the government regulation for better national health outcomes;
• to guarantee a salary to the bulk billing doctors that is equal to the local or national standards in case bulk billing does not meet the standard.
• To assess the requirements of the healthcare unions;

Australia certainly has the financial and technical resources to achieve both the means that is required to reduce the inequality between the rich and the poor (Kawachi & Subramanian, 2014). While there has been a significant improvement in the general health outcome, there has been an incline in the inequality in both income and access to health care in Australia. The  Australian government must strive to formulate policies that aim at achieving common good and welfare of the country and its citizens.

Reference List

Deaton, A. (2013). The great escape: health, wealth, and the origins of inequality. Princeton University Press.

DeLaune, S. C., Ladner, P. K., McTier, L., Tollefson, J. & Lawrence, J. (2016). Australian and New Zealand Fundamentals of nursing (ANZ 1st ed.). Cengage Learning Australia Pty. Ltd. Chapter-30- Vital Signs- Page no: 504-537

Drummond, M. F., Sculpher, M. J., Claxton, K., Stoddart, G. L., & Torrance, G. W. (2015). Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes. Oxford university press.

Eckersley, R. (2015). Beyond inequality: Acknowledging the complexity of social determinants of health. Social Science & Medicine, 147, 121-125.

Estes, M. E., Calleja, P., Theobald, K. & Harvey, T. (2013). Health assessment and physical examination (ANZ 2nd ed.) Cengage Learning Australia Pty. Ltd. Chapter-6: Examination requirements for every Patient-Page no: 142-164

Hall, J. (2015). Australian health care—The challenge of reform in a fragmented system. New England Journal of Medicine, 373(6), 493-497.

Hunt, L., Ramjan, L., McDonald, G., Koch, J., Baird, D., & Salamonson, Y. (2015). Nursing students’ perspectives of the health and healthcare issues of Australian Indigenous people. Nurse education today, 35(3), 461-467.

Kawachi, I., & Subramanian, S. V. (2014). Income inequality. Social epidemiology, 126.

Koutoukidis, G., Stainton, K., & Hughson, J. (2016). Tabbner’s Nursing Care: theory and practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Mann, S. P., Bradley, V. J., & Sahakian, B. J. (2016). Human Rights-Based Approaches to Mental Health: A Review of Programs On May 24, 2016· In Volume 18 Number. Health and Human Rights, 18(1), 1.

Morgan, R., Ensor, T., & Waters, H. (2016). Performance of private sector health care: implications for universal health coverage. The Lancet, 388(10044), 606-612.

Pickett, K. E., & Wilkinson, R. G. (2015). Income inequality and health: a causal review. Social Science & Medicine, 128, 316-326.

Tomuschat, C. (2014). Human rights: between idealism and realism. OUP Oxford.

Weaver, C. A., Ball, M. J., Kim, G. R., & Kiel, J. M. (2016). Healthcare information management systems. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Wendt, C. (2014). Changing healthcare system types. Social policy & administration, 48(7), 864-882.

Willis, E., Reynolds, L., & Keleher, H. (Eds.). (2016). Understanding the Australian health care system. Elsevier Health Sciences.