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Health Equality

HEALTH EQUALITY:

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS , TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS AND
THE FIRST NATIONS OF CANADA

INTRODUCTION

Equality in health implies that ideally everyone should have a fair opportunity to attain his or her full health potential and, more reasonably, that no one should be disadvantaged from achieving this potential.   Based on this definition, the aim of policy for equity and health is not to eliminate all health differences so that everyone has the same level and quality of health, but rather to reduce or eliminate those which result from factors which are considered to be avoidable and unfair.   To appreciate the importance of striving for equity in relation to health, it is necessary to be aware of just how extensive are the differences in health found in the world today.   In every part of the region, and in every type of political and social system, differences in health have been noted between different social groups and between different geographical areas in the same country (Whitehead 2000).   There is consistent evidence that inequalities in health result in disadvantaged groups having poorer survival chances, suffering a heavier burden of illness, and sharing a similar pattern of low quality of life
The poor health of the Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders is well known.   Since the 1970s, mortality rates have been declining, but life expectancy has not changed and the gap between the Aboriginal population and the total Australian population has widened.   This pattern contrasts with that of the Indigenous population of Canada where marked improvements in health have occurred.   From that standpoint, this paper will discuss the important issues of health care inequalities that exist with the Aboriginals in Australia and compare them to those which subsist in the First Nations of Canada.  

POPULATION OF AUSTRALIA

Australians have among the highest life expectancy in the world and most have ready...