Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Ian McAuley
Key terms/names
acute/chronic conditions, ‘Baumol effect’ on public expenditure, casemix funding,
community rating/risk rating, cost-shifting, cost–benefit analysis, fee-for-service
health care, health insurance/single-payer health insurance, moral hazard, muddling
through, out-of-pocket costs and co-payments, primary care, public health, Rawls’
‘original position’, social determinants of health, technical and allocative efficiency
A fundamental concern of governments is the health of their citizens, and all
governments have policies directed to, or having an effect on, people’s health. Most
policy concern is with health care – that is, the provision of services, ranging from
general practitioner (GP) consultations through to high-intensity care for those
suffering severe accidents or life-threatening diseases such as cancer.
Butintermsofhealthoutcomes–thecapacityofpeopletoenjoymanyyears
ofhealthylife–provisionofhealthcareisonlyonefactor.Governmentshave
programs promoting healthy lifestyles to reduce the need for health care, and
almost all government policies contribute to or detract from people’s health directly
or indirectly.
Health care, however, tends to dominate policy considerations. For reasons to
do with social equity and failures of market mechanisms to deliver health care,
governments of all persuasions, ‘left’ or ‘right’, are heavily involved in health care,
McAuley, Ian (2019). Health policy. In Peter J. Chen, Nicholas Barry, John R. Butcher, David Clune,
Ian Cook, Adele Garnier, Yvonne Haigh, Sara C. Motta and Marija Taflaga, eds. Australian politics and
policy: senior edition. Sydney: Sydney University Press. DOI: 10.30722/sup.9781743326671
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