Equality Speaks
Australia may have dodged the bullet that has put the US, Britain and most European economies on life support, but our 2009 collection of essays shows that – despite our enviable economic position – Australia is not the egalitarian paradise that many believe it to be.
Equality Speaks features an eclectic mix of writers who highlight a common challenge – to use our (relatively) stable economic times to make the shift to a fairer Australia. It brings together some of our sharpest minds to look at paths to a more equal Australia in areas like transport, homelessness, education, women, tax, refugees, work and employment amongst others. It includes new research on the distribution of wealth in Australia.Health
"Building communities where resilience and opportunity can flourish is central to tackling inequality in health. Prevention will have little impact if the social determinants of health are not considered, including factors which result in social exclusion. Key among these is tackling poverty, disability, poor social support and lack of education and skills." Jo-anne Schofield
Like education, health is a recurring theme in this report. The chapter Inequality is bad for our health shows that as the circumstances in which people live and work are more detrimental, health and mortality worsens. This not only adds to health costs, it has a profound social cost on families and communities, and leads to a loss of economically productive people to society.
Thus, treating the causes of health inequality is about more than treating illness. It’s about tackling the social determinants of health — poverty, disability, poor social support and lack of education and skills. Evidence shows that community prevention programs mostly succeed among more advantaged groups, so there is a need for a new approach: more integrated holistic models of health delivery. New service models are explored in this chapter.
The chapter looks at the challenges for the health sector in meeting increased community demand for services. It argues that policy reform is complicated by jurisdictional, regulative and legislative barriers — along with a highly gendered division of labour and system of work organisation and control. At the same time, the cost of policy measures like the private health insurance rebate has continued to rise, but this has done little to improve equality in health.
Download Chapter 12 Inequality and Health64.6 KB
