Inequity in Australian health care: how do we progress from here?
OBJECTIVE
To determine some of the key problems in pursuing equity in Australian health care and to identify some of the ways of overcoming these problems, particularly in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care.


METHODS
To identify and debate the key equity issues particularly related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care but also with respect to public versus private and rural/remote versus metropolitan.


RESULTS
Political leadership and political will plus a more compassionate, less complacent society are crucial.


CONCLUSIONS
Political leadership is needed that can inspire a more compassionate society and which reflects better the informed values of the Australian people, adopting a communitarian paradigm. There is a need for a 'health care constitutional convention' to allow the values of the populace with respect to equity to be elicited and to ensure that voices of the disadvantaged are heard. In the specific context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care, there is a need first to recognise and thereafter break down the racism that exists in many Australian institutions.
Mooney
Gavin
G
Social and Public Health Economics Research Group (SPHERe), Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, Western Australia 6845. g.mooney@curtin.edu.au
D001315:Australia; D003153:Community Health Services; D006291:Health Policy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D011057:Politics; D012923:Social Class