Week 3: Health Policy and NHPA Flashcards
What are the national health priority areas?
9 Areas: Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Asthma CV Health Cancer Diabetes' Dementia Injury Prevention and control Mental Health Obesity
What is a Health Policy?
A course of action, of principle, adopted by an individual, group or government.
It is a statement of intent.
What determines the national health priority areas?
The national health priority areas are areas which have been identified as placing a massive burden upon the health of Australian citizens, and health costs.
Thus, the NHPAs form part of the Australian Governments ‘statement of intent’ - health policy
Currently, the NHPAs are the only consistent component of health policy*
What is unique about Australia’s health policy?
Australia is unique among other OECD countries in that the most heated policical debates, on health care, are still fixated upon health financing - an issue most other OECD countries sorted out decades ago.
Along with this debate, Australia also sees oscillation between publically-funded heath care approaches, and privately funded health care approaches, with the change over of each government.
Major areas of debate still include the role of private health insurance, versus the role of publically-funded schemes such as medicare. Along with this, issues surrounding the safety net, and the national PBS are also major.
Why is the ever-changing health policy arrangement in Australia a problem?
Changing policies, implementing new strategies, etc, frequently with the ever-changing governments costs money. Money which would be better spent on health itself.
Why is Health Policy such a controversial topic?
Health policy is one of Australia’s most controversial political topics, and has been since the 1940s.
The central reason for the conflict is that the varying stakeholders have very different, and conflicting, interests.
Health care providers: want profits and incomes
Consumers: want to be able to access quality services equally, and at an affordable price
Government: wants to keep tight control over the money they expend
The reality is that not all of these objectives can be achieved at the same time
Describe the process of developing Health Policies?
1) Agenda Setting
An agenda is developed - a provisional plan to address an identified issue, or problem area. These areas are generally found through epidemiological research
2) Policy Formation
With input from stakeholders (e.g. consumers, government, providers), the goals of the policy are refined
Extra information is collected, and alternatives are examined, and compared to the proposed policy
3) Policy Implementation
Policies tend to be implemented step-by-step - in feasible, acceptible parts
Implementation requires funding, and people to exact the actions of the policy
4) Policy Evaluation Did the policy work? For whom? What was the cost? Comparison to alternatives?
Issues to current Health Policy Movements?
PBS - whether or not certain medicines are placed on the benefits scheme
Free-Trade Agreement - is Australia’s plain-packaging of cigarettes movement a breach of the free trade agreement?
What health policies are currently implemented in Australia?
1) National Mental Health Policy
2) National Preventative Health Policy
3) Hospitals Policy:
- IHPA
- NHPC
