The UK Health System vs. Australian Health System
Introduction
All people across the globe are entitled to the health attention they require. The World Health Organization has identified five elements to achieve this goal. These include reducing social disparities in health, providing services that meet clients’ expectations, altering public policies to address health, leadership reforms and increasing stakeholder participation (WHO, 2013).
With the focus on these five areas, Governments in each country are creating health systems that aim to provide services that are affordable, equitable and accessible. To achieve a sustainable health system, cooperation and participation of all health care providers is vital. This will work towards WHO’s goal of achieving “better health for all” (WHO, 2013).
One of the systems, structured by the United Kingdom (UK), is called the National Health Service (NHS). This system is generally publicly funded. To allow this, the UK government uses a percentage of the taxes paid by members of the public to fund health services. This is also the case for Australia’s healthcare system, Medicare. However despite the common basis of the two health systems, there are also many differences that result in contrasting health outcomes.
Differences between the two systems
Private health:
The private sector is a vital component of the healthcare system in Australia. The Federal Government has introduced some incentives to promote private health insurance. This includes offering a 30% rebate on annual premiums of those who take up private health insurance (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2000). However, in the UK, it is often by individual’s own initiative to take up private health insurance. This is due to patients in the UK experiencing much longer waiting periods compared to Australia, and would often consider the NHS undependable (Gillies, 2003).
Funding health care services:
In Australia, public funding is a combination of contributions at the federal, state and local
All people across the globe are entitled to the health attention they require. The World Health Organization has identified five elements to achieve this goal. These include reducing social disparities in health, providing services that meet clients’ expectations, altering public policies to address health, leadership reforms and increasing stakeholder participation (WHO, 2013).
With the focus on these five areas, Governments in each country are creating health systems that aim to provide services that are affordable, equitable and accessible. To achieve a sustainable health system, cooperation and participation of all health care providers is vital. This will work towards WHO’s goal of achieving “better health for all” (WHO, 2013).
One of the systems, structured by the United Kingdom (UK), is called the National Health Service (NHS). This system is generally publicly funded. To allow this, the UK government uses a percentage of the taxes paid by members of the public to fund health services. This is also the case for Australia’s healthcare system, Medicare. However despite the common basis of the two health systems, there are also many differences that result in contrasting health outcomes.
Differences between the two systems
Private health:
The private sector is a vital component of the healthcare system in Australia. The Federal Government has introduced some incentives to promote private health insurance. This includes offering a 30% rebate on annual premiums of those who take up private health insurance (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2000). However, in the UK, it is often by individual’s own initiative to take up private health insurance. This is due to patients in the UK experiencing much longer waiting periods compared to Australia, and would often consider the NHS undependable (Gillies, 2003).
Funding health care services:
In Australia, public funding is a combination of contributions at the federal, state and local
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