Disease expenditure

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Health system expenditure on disease and injury in Australia 2000-01 (Second edition)

Health system expenditure on cancer and other neoplasms in Australia, 2000-01

Publications - 2005 | 2004 | 1993-94

Health system expenditure on disease and injury in Australia 2000-01 (Second edition)

This report provides a systematic analysis of Australian health expenditure allocated by disease in 2000-01. Disease and injury groups are defined according to the first Australian Burden of Disease (BoD) study (AIHW: Mathers et al. 1999).

These disease expenditure estimates allocate around 87.5% of recurrent health expenditure by disease, or $50.1 billion in total. Expenditure not allocated by disease includes expenditure on community and public health services (except community mental health and public health cancer screening programs), health administration, ambulance services, and health aids and appliances.

Main results

The seven disease groups that account for the greatest health expenditure in Australia are:

These seven conditions together account for $30 billion, or 60% of allocated health expenditure.

For 2000-01 cardiovascular disease was the most expensive group ($5.5 billion), and also accounted for 38% of deaths.

Nervous system disorders was the second most expensive group ($4.9 billion) and has increased significantly since 1993-94, mostly because of a large increase in expenditure for people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias in aged care homes.

Health expenditure by age and sex

Health expenditure per person is $1,864 on average per year for males aged 0 to 4 years. It then decreases to $1,120 for boys aged 5 to 14 years and from there increases with age to $14,186 for men aged 85 years and over. For females, the pattern is the same for children, but in adulthood expenditure peaks in the 25 to 34 years age group, reflecting child-bearing expenditure; it then declines for the age range 35 to 44 years and from there increases steadily with age to $16,411 per year for women aged 85 years or over. Expenditure per person is $2,908 for females which is 27% higher than the $2,291 for males.

Changes from the first edition

The second edition differs from the first edition (AIHW 2004) in the following areas:

  1. Otitis Media has been moved to the Respiratory chapter from the Nervous system chapter - a change of $230 million.
  2. Expenditure for cervical screening has been moved from the Signs and symptoms etc chapter to the Neoplasms chapter - a change of $26 million.
  3. Changes in this publication also reflect changes following reanalysis of the BEACH dataset. These revisions mostly affect the age sex distributions of expenditure for Out-of-hospital medical services and pharmaceuticals.
  4. Expenditure on community mental health and public health cancer screening programs has been allocated by disease. This represents an additional $972 million.
  5. Table 2 has been included to show more clearly the alignment with the health expenditure categories published in Health Expenditure Australia 2000-01.

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Health system expenditure on cancer and other neoplasms in Australia 2000-01

This report provides a systematic analysis of Australian health expenditure in 2000-01 to treat or prevent cancer and other neoplasms, and to care for those with neoplastic disease. Cancer (also called malignant neoplasm) is a group of diseases characterised by the uncontrolled proliferation of abnormal cells. Other neoplasms include benign, in situ and unspecified neoplasms. Cancer and 'other neoplasms' are collectively called 'neoplasms'.

These disease expenditure estimates allocate around 87.5% of recurrent health expenditure by disease, or $50.1 billion in total. Expenditure not allocated by disease includes expenditure on community and public health services (except community mental health and public health cancer screening programs), health administration, ambulance services, and health aids and appliances.

Main results

Expenditure for cancer and other neoplasms in 2000-01 was $2.9 billion which was 5.8% of total health expenditure allocated by disease. The expenditures for cancer and other neoplasms attributed to the seven health sectors were as follows:

Expenditure on cancers (malignant neoplasms) was $2.15 billion, with $634 million being spent for other neoplasms. The most expensive cancer was non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) ($264 million) followed by breast cancer ($241 million), colorectal cancer ($235 million) and prostate cancer ($201 million).

NMSC was the most common of all the cancers, with 364,000 new cases in 2001 (National Cancer Control Initiative, 2003). All other cancers together accounted for 88,400 new cases in 2001. The high frequency of NMSC means that although it was the most expensive cancer, it had the lowest cost per case (around $700 per NMSC removed).

Ninety per cent of expenditure on cancer was for treatment.

Leukaemia had the highest lifetime treatment cost, at $51,000 per case.

Health expenditure by age and sex

Total expenditure on cancers was $1.2 billion for males and $0.9 billion for females. The most expensive cancer for males was prostate cancer ($201 million). Of this expenditure, 48% was for non-hospital pharmaceuticals ($97 million). Breast cancer was the most expensive cancer for females ($241 million). Of this expenditure, 40%was for organised mammography screening ($96 million). NMSC was the second most expensive for both males ($153 million) and females ($111 million).

The most expensive cancers for boys and girls (aged 0-14) were leukaemia and brain cancer. Males accounted for higher expenditure than females. For leukaemia, $10 million was for males and $8 million for females. For brain cancer, $3.4 million was for males and $3.1 million for females. 

In the 15-24 age group, leukaemia and bone and connective tissue cancer had the highest expenditure for both males and females. Again, expenditure on these two cancers was higher for males than for females. For leukaemia, $5.6 million was for males and $3.7 million was for females. For bone and connective tissue cancer, $1.5 million was for males and $1.4 million was for females. 

The most expensive cancer for males in the 25-64 age group was NMSC ($53 million), followed by colorectal cancer ($43 million). For females in the 25-64 age group the most expensive was breast cancer ($89 million), followed by NMSC ($44 million). 

In the group aged 65 and over, prostate cancer ($169 million) was the most expensive for males, followed by NMSC ($100 million). For females 65 and over, the most expensive was colorectal cancer ($74 million), followed by NMSC ($66 million).

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2005 Publications

2004 Publications

1993-94 Publications

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Last reviewed by on 6 May 2005