Healthcare is one area in which Australia has excelled.
Medicare, a comprehensive, government-funded health insurance program that provides discounts on medical expenses, is available to all Australians.
All Australians are entitled to free medical treatment in public hospitals.
Australia also has a national Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme that provides considerable subsidies to ensure that consumers are not prevented from purchasing drugs they require due to cost.
There are mandatory co-payments for each prescription, with cheaper co-payments for persons with social-security concession cards and safety nets for those prescribed many medications.
The Australian healthcare system outperforms the OECD average. Cost outcomes are good, with the share of GDP spent on health care marginally higher than the OECD average but lower than that of nations with similar resources.
With this background in mind, it was heartening to see that Australia’s health system ranked the highest out of 10 nations in an evaluation of 70 health system performance measures by CommonwealthFund.org:
Australia ranked best on Equity, Health Outcomes, and Overall. However, it ranked relatively poorly on Access to Care (9th) and Care Process (5th).
“Australia offers free care in all public hospitals, and the nation’s universal Medicare system provides all Australians with coverage for all or part of the cost of GP and specialist consultations and diagnostic tests, with additional subsidies available for private hospital care”, the report notes.
“The country’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, meanwhile, regulates and subsidizes medication costs to keep them affordable”.
“Australia, the top performer overall in this report, faired quite poorly when it came to access to care”, the report added.
“Roughly half of Australian patients who do not choose to purchase voluntary health insurance may have to wait longer to receive services”.
Australia also ranks well (2nd) on administrative efficiency.
“In Australia, electronic claims processing ensures instantaneous payments from public and private payers”, the report notes.
While there are obvious areas needing improvement, especially access, Australia’s health system is world-class overall.
Let’s ensure that it remains that way.
