Assessment Description:
you will choose a country and research its healthcare system. This will help you to understand the interdependent relationship between economics, health care and public health, and gain insight into how a country perceives health and well-being by examining where resources are allocated, how efficiently they are managed, and how effective they are at achieving good health care outcomes.
Choose one country, other than your own, and research its public health system.
Part 1 – 500 words
Explain how the public health system is both organised and funded. As part of this, consider: The percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) spent upon health. How does this compare with other countries?
Financing: Where does the money come from? What proportion is public and what proportion is private, and what services does each source fund? Is any funding set aside for system development?
Spending: What are the underlying trends (demographic, changes in treatment, or technology) about where money is being spent (expenditure)?
Coverage – is there universal health coverage within this system? If so, how comprehensive is it?
Part 2 – 500 words
Describe the key elements of building blocks of the health system (as identified by WHO 2007; XXXXXXXXXXIn this particular country are there problems with any of these building blocks?
o E.g. are there key workforce shortages in a particular profession? How might imbalances be addressed?
o E.g. Is the workforce appropriately trained to develop core competencies?
Part 3 – 500 words
What is the expenditure for prevention programs and public health services? How is this estimated?
What is the relationship between equity (the unfair and preventable differences in health status between groups) and resource allocation? How does this affect the provision of public health programs and services in your chosen country?
How might economic factors prevent the delivery of health programs in your chosen country?
Assessment Criteria:
Demonstrates the ability to interpret relevant concepts and literature on universal health coverage, health systems and core competencies in public health. (20%)
Demonstrates the ability to apply knowledge and understanding of health systems and core competencies in public health to a case example. (15%)
Describes key health system issues for the selected country. (20%)
Demonstrated understanding of the principles of health economics including health expenditure, resource allocation, and equity considerations. (15%)
Shows the ability to interpret and analyse relevant information and literature on economic considerations. (10%)
Addresses General assessment criteria: (20%)
o Uses key readings and shows evidence of reading beyond the key reading
o There is a lucid introduction and clear conclusion or summary of Complies with normal academic of referencing and bibliographical details (including reference list, use APA style).
o Is written clearly with accurate spelling, grammar and sentence and paragraph construction.
XXXXXXXXXXAssessment Sample
Part A
Multiple associated key players fund the health system in Australia. It includes governmental bodies including national, state or te
itory as well as locals and also include multiple private health insurers. The Australian people can access the delivery of care freely within the public health system. It is also important to understand that due to the increasing rate of diseases, including cardiovascular diseases and other chronic illness, have affected directly on the overall health status. The adequate policies and regulation are essential that would also reduce the gap in health equity along with diversity within the health care system.
The expenditure on health is steadily increasing by every passing year. In Austria, the expenditure spent on health is approximately 10% of the overall GDP, it reflects that in every 10per cent expenditure, there is 1 dollar towards health care. For comparing spend of GDP on healthcare with other countries, the OECD health system is considered. In the year 2016, the overall proportion of GDP towards health is 9.6%, and figure 1 reflect the comparison with other countries.
Figure 1: Comparison chart
Source: (Aihw.gov.au, 2020)
The money towards the health system is from various sources. Around 41% was from Australian government bodies, and 27% were funded through the individual, making the high payment along with 17% comes from the cross-subsidisation purposes. Besides, 9% were from private healthcare insurance, including 6% from other non-governmental organisation. For any system development, both sources of private and public funding are essential. Some of the examples of system development are Medicare benefits schedule or national immunisation program.
The money spends on the healthcare system as per the needs and demand of the people, along with the underlying trends. Considering demographic as the underlying trend, multiple social determinants of health is essential to understand. A community like aboriginal, as well as the South Sea Islander community, are the vulnerable group to access the qualitative health care. Along with the social determinants, other psychological addictions towards substance abuse and other socio-demographic factors are essential to consider while financing on health. Another underlying trend is changing in treatment, and it has been seen that the evidence-based treatment or multiple kinds of research are increasing towards effective delivery of care. Skilled healthcare workers and adequate technology is changing the approach of treatment and improving the overall health system. The emergence of technology is another underlying trend, with the help of new tools like patient monitoring system or electronic medical records are benefiting the care and reducing the e
ors. Thus, the expenditure towards such underlying trends is essential as it is enhancing the overall health status.
Australia has adequate and essential universal coverage as the public health is free for the people. The Medicare funds it and multiple hy
id systems of care are being formulated towards universality care. However, it is essential to understand that the lack of diversity along with connectedness among the cultures and ethnicity are the major ba
iers towards the full universality coverage. The health equity and affordability of healthcare services are not yet addressed efficiently.
Part B
For strengthening and enhancing the overall delivery of health care system, World health organisation (WHO) has proposed and introduced an effective framework that comprises of six building blocks. The overall goal of these building blocks is to improve the health, efficiency as well as protect the social and financial risks. Figure 2 reflects the six major building block of the
introduced framework (who.int, 2010
Figure 2: Building Block
Source: (who.int, 2010)
The initial element is service delivery, the delivery of quality care towards the people are adequate and accessible for every care seekers. However, low socio and economic group of people are affected in accessing the delivery of care. Indigenous people or people residing in underserved areas are facing poor delivery of care. Most of the causes are due to additional cost for accessing care such as transportation cost. Therefore, the health system should note such a critical element for adequate delivery of care. The next element is human resources; the need for healthcare workforces is the most critical element. However, there is an improvement in the increase in the workforce. The major issues are inadequate to the rate of workforce towards the rural areas for delivering healthcare. Enhancing the rate of the health workforce in rural areas would also improve the accessibility of care in those areas as they are facing the issue of the additional cost of travelling. Adequate training and communication is essential for continual retention and introducing adequate policies for improving the healthcare workforce in vulnerable areas.
Medicines and technologies are the next building block. However, the advancement in technology is enhancing in the country, and the major issue is lack of knowledge among the healthcare workers for operating the issue. Staff training is essential for using certain equipment and other biomedical technology as inadequate knowledge can lead to adverse events. Multiple programmes are available for easy accessibility of medicines towards the community. Financing is another building block, and there is adequate support from government agencies towards the public health system. However, adequate financing is required for the research for development in the various healthcare sector.
The information system is the fifth building block, and it reflects the adequate evaluation and monitoring towards the healthcare system. The information is essential for making a critical decision towards the adequate delivery of care or treatment. The patients or individuals should have the right to access their health status as it would help in managing or making a decision towards their health. The information is adequately available to the patient as multiple technologies like electronic medical records have been implemented for transmission of information. The ultimate building block is leading and governance, it is important to note that both private and public health sector is governed by the government and leading towards providing the optimal care towards every individual. The major issues of inequality of health across multiple communities are the ba
iers in universal coverage of health. Therefore, healthcare leaders or governance, including policymakers, should promote and encourage the essential changes for addressing gaps in healthcare delivery. There should be a formulation of policy that would address the major issue of delivering care in multiple communities.
Part C
The activities of public health include multiple programmes including campaigns, events, preventable actions, awareness programs and many others that would reduce the risk of poor health among people. Figure 3 reflects the expenditure on prevention programs and services.
Figure 3: Expenditure towards prevention program
Source: (phaiwa.org.au, 2020)
From figure 3, it has been understood that the shared budget towards the public health system is around $2 billion every year. Health expenditure is estimated by considering multiple parameters, including medical care, prevention program, and rehabilitation along with promotional activities. Other healthcare administration activities and community health activities would also drive expenditure on health.
There is a direct relationship between health equity and the allocation of resources. Due to the poor structure of the allocation of resources, there is a rise in issues related to health equity. The distribution or allocation of resources should be provided that would meet the needs of every individual within the community. The unfair towards accessing healthcare due to reasons like a community group, poor income level, and other social determinants. Therefore, the allocation of resources should be done with both vertical and horizontal approach. The people who need the most should be provided with more resources. The cost-effective analysis is an effective method for identifying the appropriate intervention of resource allocation to prevent the issue in health equity.
The poor allocation of resources would have multiple effects like increasing rates of issues toward health equity. There would be a rise in health disparity, poor healthcare outcome and increasing rates of mortality. It would be difficult for the