html5-img
1 / 8

Maintaining a Healthy Pacific

Maintaining a Healthy Pacific. How might PACER- Plus impact on the health of Pacific Island women? Claire Slatter. PACER Plus. Primarily a free trade agreement Conceived (and is being pushed) by Australia and NZ who stand to benefit most from it

hija
Télécharger la présentation

Maintaining a Healthy Pacific

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Maintaining a Healthy Pacific How might PACER- Plus impact on the health of Pacific Island women? Claire Slatter

  2. PACER Plus • Primarily a free trade agreement • Conceived (and is being pushed) by Australia and NZ who stand to benefit most from it • Aimed at liberalizing trade betw PICs & Aust & NZ • Primarily by reducing/eliminating tariffs & other barriers to goods and services supplied by Australian and NZ companies and firms • Australia and NZ are expected to reciprocate by opening their markets to goods and services produced in the PICS • But trade balance is overwhelmingly in favour of Australia and NZ – likely to tip even further in their favour through PACER Plus

  3. Likely demands of Australia and NZ under PACER Plus • Market access for goods produced by Australian and NZ companies • Market access for services supplied by Australian & NZ firms/companies (including in the health and education sectors) • Investment access (and access to other resource bases e.g. land, natural resources, capital)

  4. Current problems in PIC health systems • Shortage of medical personnel • Globalization of health care • Emigration of experienced medical personnel (Fiji, Samoa and Tonga) –> Australian & NZ (Feb 2008 – 160 doctors reported by MoH to have left Fiji; 5 doctors in Nadi Hospital; • Labour migration of nurses (privately contracted, short-term, informal care work – open recruitment of nurses by agencies from Australia) • As many Fiji doctors and nurses working abroad as in Fiji • Several studies/papers (Kelsey, Narsey, McClellan, Connell, Naidu) • Triple burden of disease –communicable diseases, NCDs (diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer) and injuries. • Budgetary allocations to public health systems • Reduced per capita allocations to health • Largest allocation to emoluments (58%) • High expenditure on curative cf preventive services • Shortage of drugs, equipment and other medical supplies • High reliance on curative services abroad

  5. Health Sector reforms • Part of donor-driven public sector reforms • Decentralized outpatient services • Separation of administrative and medical functions and personnel • Privatization of outpatient services • Private health providers • Health financing reforms • National Health Accounts • Health Master Plans • User pays (exemptions <5;>60; chronically ill; communicable diseases) • Social health insurance (earnings-based contributions from formal sector employees; an alternative to more universal tax-financed health system financed through taxes and non tax government revenue)

  6. Some trade-related health issues • Reduced tariffs -> government revenue -> reduced capacity for social provisioning (e.g. in health services) • Increased VAT or GST to compensate for lost revenue -> increase health costs (services, supplies, drugs – Sarah Meade study) • Increased privatization of health -> declining quality of health care in public health system (health personnel tend to move from (or between) public to private • Unhealthy food imports from Australia and NZ • Fatty waste-products from the meat industry (namely lamb/mutton flaps, lard) - a lucrative export earner for the NZ and Australian meat industries • Other unhealthy processed food imports (e.g. SPAM) • Access to health services in Australia and NZ?

  7. Gender implications • Major health problems affecting women • Cancers (cervical and breast) • NCDs – lifestyle diseases • Diabetes, hyper-tension, obesity • STIs • Reproductive health problems • Health services important to women • Early detection screening services for female cancers • Community health • Maternal health care • Reproductive health services • Weakened public health systems, cost-barriers to accessing health services, including treatment not available locally, affect women most • Poor preventive health services – including public health education and awareness also leave women particularly disadvantaged

  8. Health does not just mean the absence of disease • For women, the health implications of poverty include: • living with stress (their own and their partners – VAW is known to increase in families in economic crisis) • being unable to access treatment • Self treating with traditional medicine • Relying on prayer for a cure • The PACER Plus gender implications in health? Apart from implications of restrictive IP (which could reduce PIC’s access to generic drugs), would be speculating.

More Related