“Despite Australia’s universal health care system, disparities and challenges remain with access to health care, affordability of health services, and care processes among certain disadvantaged groups and remote and rural areas, for example, people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds (respectfully referred to as Indigenous population hereafter), culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations (those who were overseas-born and who speak languages other than English at home) [14], sexual minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex) [15], and residents of remote and regional areas. Indigenous Australians comprise 3.3% of the total population [16]. Compared to non-Indigenous and urban areas, health indicators and access to health services are poor among disadvantaged groups. Compared to non-Indigenous people, Indigenous Australians have eight years shorter life expectancy at birth [17], while 12 years shorter for Indigenous Australians living in remote areas [18]. Indigenous Australians (of remote areas) have experienced a high burden of infectious (burden of skin, eye, and respiratory infections) and NCDs such as mental and substance use disorders, and obesity [19, 20]. One in four (26%) Australians belongs to the CALD groups, while nearly one in five (17.9%) is from non-English-speaking countries [21]. People of CALD backgrounds, such as refugees, suffer from mental disorders and obesity compared to the general population [6, 22, 23]. Even Australian-born immigrants and non-English-speaking migrants have a high burden of mental disorders and poor access to health services [24]. Furthermore, in residential aged care facilities (RACFs), elderly multicultural people comprise more than one in five (22%) [25]. Furthermore, many of these disadvantaged populations live in regional areas, have poor access to health services, and experience a high burden of diseases but have limited delivery of and access to health services [26–28]. Sexual minorities also experience stigma and sexual identity-based discrimination while accessing health services at the point of care [29, 30]. Moreover, these disadvantaged populations have faced high care costs, lack of timely care, and care process (preventive, safe, coordinated care, and engagement and patient preferences) [5]. These indicate persistent inequity in health outcomes in the context of Australian universal health care system. Health inequities are contributed by social determinants of health such as disparities in socioeconomic status and income and discrimination at individual, organisation, and system levels [31].”
Source: Khatri RB, Assefa Y. Drivers of the Australian Health System towards Health Care for All: A Scoping Review and Qualitative Synthesis. Biomed Res Int. 2023;2023:6648138. Published 2023 Oct 20. doi:10.1155/2023/6648138
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