Every year Australia spends more on its health, even after allowing for inflation. As a proportion of all spending on goods and services, health spending has increased from 7.9% to 9.4% over the past decade.
However, there is a lot that needs to be done with those increasing dollars, both by hospitals and in the community, and a wide range of health services are increasingly active.
More than $120 billion!
Australia spent $121.4 billion on health in 2009–10, which accounted for 9.4% of total spending on all goods and services in the economy (known as gross domestic product or GDP). This averaged out to $5,479 per person.
Health spending for Australia, like other OECD countries, has increased over the past decade at a faster rate than spending on all goods and services.
As a proportion of GDP, Australia’s spending in 2009 was much less than that of the United States (17.4%), slightly less than the United Kingdom (9.8%), New Zealand (10.3%) and Canada (11.4%), and close to the OECD median (9.6%).
Where the money comes from
Of the total health funding of $121.4 billion in 2009–10, the Australian Government contributed 44%, and state, territory and local governments 26%. Other funds were provided by individuals as out-of-pocket payments (30%), and private health insurers (8%), with small contributions from third-party motor vehicle insurers and worker’s compensation insurers.
As a share of total health spending, Australia’s out-of-pocket payments (18.2%) in 2009 were higher than the median for developed countries (15.8%).
Where the money goes
In 2009–10, hospitals were by far the biggest area of health spending. They consumed 40% of regular health spending (which in turn made up almost 96% of total health spending, the rest being for new buildings and major equipment).
The next largest component was medical services (18%), comprising mainly services provided by GPs and specialists as private practitioners. Medicines made up another 14%, followed by dental services (7%).
Which conditions cost the most?
Another way to look at health spending is to consider how much money is spent on different conditions. About two-thirds of total regular health spending can be allocated to disease groupings. Of the broad groups shown, cardiovascular diseases accounted for the greatest spending ($7.9 billion or 11%) followed by oral health ($7.1 billion or 10%) and mental disorders ($6.1 billion or 8%).
Care provided to patients admitted to a hospital made up the bulk of spending for some disease groups (such as congenital anomalies (birth defects) and cancers). For other disease groups (such as oral health), a greater proportion of spending went towards services, programs and goods outside the hospital setting.
Our health system is busier
Along with increased spending on health, our health system is more and more active. Each year, GPs see more patients, a growing number of medicines are prescribed, ambulances and aero-medical services attend to and transport more people, hospitals and emergency departments are increasingly busy, and a greater number of elective surgeries are performed.