Description

A system is as good as its weakest link. The recent COVID-19 pandemic provided clear lessons on the need to advance healthcare access, making it accessible to all. Most countries are facing disparities in healthcare coverage and provision. These disparities emerge from the healthcare financing structure, availability of healthcare workers, social determinants of health such as poverty and education, and other systemic issues (Cash-Gibson et al., 2018). Advancing healthcare to all requires both policy and systemic transformations to meet national and global health goals on equity.

Country

Describe the policy in each country related to the identified healthcare issue.

There are several health policies that try to address the issue of health equity and advancing health for all. However, the most prominent policy is the Affordable Care Act of 2010, which expanded Medicare and Medicaid coverage to capture more people from low-income and other vulnerable populations, including the elderly (McIntyre & Song, 2019)

Australia has a Medicare program that provides free or low-cost healthcare services to all Australians who use the public healthcare system. For those who use private healthcare, the Medicare package caters for some of the expenses. The program’s financing was streamlined through the National Health Reform Agreement of 2011 (Dixit & Sambasivan, 2018).

What are the strengths of this policy?

Some of the strengths attached to the ACA include lower prescription costs and increased coverage for Americans, especially those from low-income households (McIntyre & Song, 2019). The ACA also removed the prohibitions that were initially present for people with preexisting health conditions. These efforts, in turn, made health accessible for a significant section of the population.

The strength of the Australian Medicare policy, more so through the National Health Reform Agreement of 2011, is that it does not have restrictions on access to any Australian or some overseas visitors. The Medicare system provides comprehensive coverage for a wide range of healthcare services at low cost or in some circumstances no cost at all. The policy also gives priority to prevention interventions to reduce long-term healthcare costs (Dixit & Sambasivan, 2018)

What are the weaknesses of this policy?

The ACA has its fair share of challenges, one of them being dissatisfaction related to the low impact of the policy for those who do not qualify for the ACA subsidies. Another weakness is complications related to shopping for coverage. In such a hybrid system, implementing the ACA has led to a loss in company-sponsored plans (McIntyre & Song, 2019).

Like the ACA, the National Health Reform Agreement also brings with it a significant increase in healthcare costs, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment, which the Australian government is trying to address through other policies (Dixit & Sambasivan, 2018)

Explain how the social determinants of health may impact the specified global health issue. (Be specific and provide examples)

Social determinants such as poverty affect the ability to afford healthcare services, thus impairing efforts to advance health to all, especially in systems that are not fully financed by the government like the US system.

Education level and cultural practices are among the major hindrances in advancing healthcare to all. These two determinants affect the usability of healthcare services, even when it is fully funded by the government.

How has each country’s government addressed cost, quality, and access to the selected global health issue?

The US government through the ACA introduced the aspect of value-based care model, which is a payment model that focuses more on the quality of services offered than the number of patients viewed. This approach reduces costs b