Essay on Universal Healthcare in New Zealand

Introduction

The impact of the socio-economic and health status of a country is immense on the population of a country. However, it has been seen that the impact vary from country to country. The impact on developing countries and developed countries are completely different. In every country, there are many subgroups of people who are called the natives of the country. Their impact on the socio-economic and health status of the country is worthy of discussion. In this report, the point of discussion will involve the impact of the subgroup of people and middle-income families in New Zealand. This report will also critically evaluate the impact of the Pacifica group of people on the socio-economic and health status of the country. The comparison of the aforesaid status has been made with the other countries of the world, especially with the developing countries.

Task 1:

Critically reflect on the health and the socio-economic status of AotearoaNewZealand population, including sub groups like Māori, Pacifica, and middle-income families. Choose one subgroup and critically discuss the impact of their socio-economic status on access to the NZ healthcare system and their health outcomes.

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The circumstances of health care involving the indigenous people in New Zealand differ according to the social, political and social characteristics of their environment in particular. The health circumstances also differ according to their interaction with the non-indigenous people of New Zealand. New Zealand is grouped among the OECD countries and has been experiencing the creation of a huge gap between the wealthy and middle-class people. The issues of inequality need to address by the government as that will help in creating a society that will be fair. The equal opportunities should be given to every class of people and properly screening the areas in which the improvement is needed. Inequality gives rise to economic challenges, political challenges, and ethical challenges. As per the opinion of Pihema (2017), this leaves many people behind in the changing economy. The inequality patterns of New Zealand have been well established. Apart from the inequality based on income or wealth, the scale of inequality in New Zealand is almost equal to Australia, Japan. Recently, a poll section has been taken which has said that the huge gap between the rich and the poor or middle-class people is creating an imbalance in the sector of wealth for the New Zealanders..Income is the major determinant of health and there is significant relation between the low income and poor health. Financially deprived families have more morbidity and mortality rates.while the adequate income is responsible for many other health determinants like good housing, nutrious diet and quality education. If they lack good education they are not able to trust the system which will cause unemployment, poor housing and the consequences are drastic, the life expectancy decreased, the higher risk of chronic diseases like metabolic diseases, cancer and cardiovascular diseases associated with the lifestyle factors like smoking and drug abuse and suffer from mental distress (zambas and wright,2016)

The Pacifica people are more prone to the adverse effects of health as they do not receive the facility of adequate housing. It is difficult for them to have access to proper health care facilities. They are discriminated which results in the lower income of the Pacifica People. The lower income takes away the right of this type of person to have access to proper nutrition and appropriate housing facilities.

Compared to the reference groups of the decile one Europeans who have a life expectancy has the greatest value. As per the opinion of Roskruge, Poot& King (2016), when the life lost was compared between the Pacifica men and the Pacifica women it has been seen that 9.5 years lost for The Pacifica men and 7.1 years was lost for the specific women. Smoking something has been

the biggest cost for printing morbidity and the mortality rate in the OECD countries, which includes New Zealand. As per the view of Reynolds (2016), smoking has been recognized as the major cause for various types of cancers cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases in adults. High exposure to smoking cigarettes has been recognized as one of the major risks for sudden death in infants and illnesses in the respiratory tract. The people of Maoris and Pacifica smoke largely compared to the total population of New Zealand. As per theopinion of Lipsey (2016),in the year 2006, it has been seen that 8.1% of the Pacifica children below the age of 15 used to live in a house with at least one smoker. This is established by. factor specific people who are very strict about smoking at home to be specific, it can be said that there and unsupportive of smoking in the house. Timely access to an effective health care system is an important factor for health-positive outcomes in the case of both the rates of death and the impact of chronic conditions on the Pacifica people. According to the opinion of Parackal (2018), primary care is referring to the health care which is provided within the community. It includes the health education provision and the services of prevention treatment and the coordination of illnesses that are less serious.

Proper maintaining of the Primary health care services will lead to the necessary referral of the secondary services. According to the view of Doolan-Noble (2015), apart from the Department of Emergency Services for Primary Care at the initiation step for the health system, they are very important for identifying the illnesses which are serious and then proceeded to the secondary or emergency services. The services for Primary health care are centered around the GP and the practicing of nursing services recently has been seen that the expansion of the primary services has been done which involves disciplinary teams and a wide range of health care services. Pacifica people have access to the services of child health care services regarding preventive measures. In the year 2006, many people were enrolled in Plunkett and percentage counts to 90. This percentage of infants was given the proper clinical assessment, services of parent education and health promotion. The infants of Pacifica not like the other Europeans and are more like the infants of Maoris

Maori population assumed 12%of GP visits which are less as compare to others, and 30% of visitors are young population between the age group 14to25 years and the percentage is higher (58.9%)at maori health providers than the private, community health care provider(11.8%and 19.4%) respectively(MOH,2019)

Due to the cost factor, 14% of adults do not visit GPs that data is similar as in 2006, and 3%of children did not report in past years. Ministry of Health started the initiative in 2008 to provide additional funding to encourage free GP consultation for the children under the age of 3 that will result in decreasing the unmet needs of GPs due to cost factors. Primary health organizations are the basic structure of health through which the government provides accessibility to general practitioners and provides funding to them to ensure that people enroled with PHO can get essential primary care. According to the opinion of Walters (2016), proper screening of the health problems, which are potential at the early stage, especially for the seriousdiseases. These diseases do not show symptoms at all. The proper and effective screening will help a person to get rid of serious diseases. The constructive way of processing the screening methods will be helpful for the people. According to the view of Olaison, Torres &Forssell (2018), it often happens that specific people with discriminated against based on caste, creed, religion, and social class, therefore, it is important to screen their serious illnesses in order to save them from life-threatening diseases. As per the opinion of Ross (2017), discrimination leads to bad habits like smoking and alcohol consumption. It is making them depressed as inequality is highly practiced in New Zealand and has been the greatest matter of concern.

Task 2

Provide a Critical Examination of the Aotearoa New Zealand Health system, including historical analysis, Funding, and Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Levels of Healthcare. Critically discuss how this system compares with that of your own country (if not from NZ).

The health system of New Zealand after the settlement of Europeans was run by the English system and there are both public and private health care services . In the year 1900 the Department of Public Health was built the main function of this was to look at the health of New Zealanders. And it is funded by taxation system. In 1983 the health boards were the main authorities in the health care system. Provide economic sources to hospitals and the government provide sources to the primary organization (cumming et al .,2014)

The prime motto of. healthcare organizations provide healthcare services to patients and give their best for the fast recovery of patients. As per the view ofLangmore (2017),  to provide appropriate health care services to patients, modern technological infrastructure such as ECG (electrocardiogram), X-ray machines, medical lasers, infusion pumps, MRI machines, and many other pieces of equipment are required. The cost of implementing such advanced devices within healthcare organizations requires huge capital investments and skilled labor. Healthcare in remote and rural areas of New Zealand has not competed in affording such a huge amount of capital and this reduces the efficiency of providing effective healthcare services to healthcare seekers (Keene et al. 2016). As compared with other developing countries and New Zealand, the healthcare system of New Zealand is much better as it is marching towards fast development. It is found that the health care system that prevails in New Zealand has undergone rapid and tremendous growth and development.

The tremendous growth and development of the healthcare system in New Zealand is attributed to the development of fiscal rules and regulations. The Social Security Act 1938 developed by the New Zealand government has initiated reform activities within the healthcare system of New Zealand (ssa.gov, 2017). This law has enforced healthcare providers present in New Zealand to improve and innovate their healthcare system so that effective and high-quality treatment can be provided to patients. This law has started health insurance to be provided to common people and this has benefited many people in New Zealand)

In New Zealand, most of the funding for healthcare comes from Vote Health and it is found out that Vote Health has provided funds amounting to $16.142 billion from 2016 to 2017 (health.govt.nz, 2018). The other funding source of New Zealand that contributes to healthcare are ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation), government agencies, and private sources. Private source of funding in the healthcare system includes insurance company. One of the latest funding sources that is capable of generating a huge amount of capital is crowdfunding. In the era of modern technology and networking, the crowdfunding approach to collecting funds is beneficial. Through social media, awareness of the requirement of huge capital investment for the healthcare system can be created. Interested people can contribute funds as per their capability. According to the opinion of Ali & Narayan (2015), the capital collected from different sources of funding is used to improve healthcare care facilities and also for providing free healthcare services to needy people. Compared with the funding source of New Zealand with developing countries it is found that developing countries have government-sponsored hospitals where healthcare facilities are provided to people at low cost. However, the quality of service in government-sponsored healthcare institutions is below standards. Apart from this, developing countries have less number of healthcare care practitioners who can provide efficient healthcare services to patients. As per the view of Carter (2016), the scarcity of healthcare professionals has degraded healthcare facilities in developing countries. As per the view of Knight-de-Blois (2015), the absence of appropriate healthcare professionals and healthcare technologies has deteriorated healthcare services in both developing countries and developing countries.

When immediate and emergency services are not provided to patients in need the death rate increases and this degrades the fame and reputation of a country. To avoid such a scenario, New Zealand needs to develop appropriate methods and strategies. When required, examples of developed countries can be adopted for enhancing healthcare facilities.

Primary health care involves the services of nurses, which have improved a lot in the present day. New Zealand has developed a country that is helping the improvement of health care services. According to the opinion of McKenzie (2019), the cost of healthcare services has also decreased due to the high discrimination of the Pacifica, and Maoris people. This has been seen that proper training and education have been provided to the nurses and they have been educated properly to provide better healthcare services to the people of New Zealand, especially the Pacifica and the Maoris as they have been pushed to the back and have indulged in many ill practices. According to the opinion of Carter et al. (2016), when compared with the developing countries, it has been seen that their economic progress is not that high and they are trying hard to take it to the top position. The cost of healthcare facilities is not that much low when compared to developed countries.

The secondary health care services consist of the specialized way of taking care of the patients. Specialized doctors or physicians come under this group. According to the opinion of Heap (2019), the government of New Zealand has made some regulations that will force specialist doctors to care for the Pacifica. The surgeons are grouped under the tertiary category of health care services, as, not all cardiologists are heart surgeons. The more specific approach to the health care services of New Zealand than the secondary health care services is considered as the tertiary health care services.

India has a combined health care system that includes public and private health providers. private healthcare providers mostly distribute their services in urban areas they mainly focus on the secondary and tertiary levels of care. The New Zealand health system is almost similar to India. The services are provided by government and non-government agencies that include primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of care. In India, the sub-centers, primary health centers, and community health centers make up the basic infrastructure of the public health care system. This system is based on population norms, the subcenter covers (3000-5000 ) population, the primary health center covers(20000-30000)and the community health centers provide services to(80000-120000)population. These centers provide primary and secondary levels of care. The district and sub-district hospitals cover about 2.8 lakh population and provide tertiary care to the population. There are also charitable trusts and voluntary organisations that provide services to mankind.