Equity in Medical Care
The healthcare system of any country is normally weighed down by a lot of problems which runs the whole scope from funding to the number of available physicians. Finding a middle ground is an almost impossible task. New Zealand’s healthcare structure while far from being perfect, places high on the list of efficient health systems.
Martin Shore generously contributed this post for us. He is the main author of Ultrasound Technician Training and also writes regularly for other sites like Radiology Technician Schools in California and Ultrasound Technician Course and many other topics. He has done extensive research on the impact of diagnostic procedures to healthcare delivery systems and is quite enthusiastic about sharing his discoveries. His views are expressed in this article although it’s not exactly the same as the views of this site’s owners.
The secret of its seeming success probably lies in the hybrid design. This form has been adopted in an effort to marry both the budget requirement and the health needs of the general population. The majority of the expenses is shouldered by the government but it is helped in a minor way by private payments.
The original design for NZ’s healthcare was universal in nature. Over time, experience dictated that in order to sustain the program and still be able to offer quality care, the leaders had to find means to help it along. And so, the mixed public-private system of delivering care was born. The creation of other governmental agencies like the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) also helped to redirect those requiring specialized care. The ACC’s reach takes on expenses for all accident-related cases, even extending coverage for tourists who are visiting the country provided of course, that they have legal papers with them.
The current system can be considered superior if compared side by side with that of the US. Right now, it’s too early in the game to assess what kind of performance the new health care bill, the ACA, will have on the US health system but judging from the ruckus that the political parties are raising up, it might take awhile to see it fully in action. Now that’s one system that’s better funded, the question is, if their political parties will give it half a chance to work.
The strength of NZ’s health system is that it covers a broad range of medical services that are offered free through public hospitals. Its weakness involves the provision of services that are costly, like diagnostic imaging or cases that require major operations. This usually involves being on a long waiting list that could take awhile to be called on, unless your condition becomes critical in which case, you qualify for emergency care.
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It is because of this persistent concern that a back up system of health insurance plans came up. These policies assume the cost of operations and treatments for enrolled individuals. Other complimentary programs include PHARMAC, a government agency that takes over the cost and regulate the use of medicines. They work on co-payments but offer subsidy for certain groups like those who have community health services card or individuals with higher health plans. Free emergency services are also available through the support of charities and a combination of public and private funds.
It is a fact that there’s still are lot of ground to cover to reach the status of having a truly efficient healthcare system. But what NZ has right now generally works and can be accessed by majority of the population. To have a system that allows you to get medical care and not have to worry if you have the funding or insurance for it is a definite advantage. It’s possibly the closest that you can get to an equitable health care system.
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It’s impossible to look anywhere in the mass media today without hearing about the woeful state of the West’s economy. It’s true that things look pretty bleak at the moment, but there is something that many people haven’t stopped to consider when they whitter on about job loss: the free market will prevail, and it will self-correct.
We no longer live in the world of the nuclear family from the 1950s, because it’s just not sustainable. It might be nice, but it’s just not in the cards. So we can whine about the good old days, or we can accept the fact that change is a necessary part of life and start looking for new ways to thrive in a global market economy. $internationalbusiness has become a fact of life, and we can’t pretend we live in an isolationist state, despite what our terror alerts would have us believe.
As you probably know by visiting this blog, we here are the antithesis of socialism. The free market should be the determining factor in the world, as the right to bargain in a free market is one of the most basic human rights. That extends to all areas of life, although we also believe there should be one exception: information. Information should be free, since it doesn’t rightfully cost anything. One of the areas that we find this is most true is the areas of health and wellness. Not by coincidence, this access to health information is one of the things that causes a major drag on the economies of countries with socialized medicine.
