Health

Important issues regarding health expenditure include: Who finances the health system and where are the funds directed? How much on average, does each Australian spend on health? At what rate is Australia's health bill growing each year? How fast are health prices rising and how does this compare with general inflation?  How much investment is there in health facilities and equipment? These questions are answered in the publication Health expenditure Australia.

The Institute's national health expenditure data collection for Australia dates from 1960-61. Detailed data at the state level are available from 1996-97. 

Publications

Health expenditure Australia 2006-07, released 26 September 2008, is the latest issue in the health expenditure publication series, covering the period 1996-97 to 2006-07.

• Health expenditure Australia 2006-07
  • Excel tables

To access earlier editions, visit Health and Welfare Expenditure Series or Health Expenditure Bulletins.

---

• Medicare state of provider by state of patient tables, 2006-07
   

These tables present Medicare expenditure and services data, by broad type of service group, for in hospital and out of hospital services, by State/Territory of Provider and by State/Territory of Patient, 2006-07 (year of service) for claims processed up to end of June 2008.
 

---

Health expenditure summary

General
Spending on health represents a significant component of Australia's economy.  Latest Institute figures show total health expenditure to be $94.0 billion in 2006-07, which is 9.0% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Australia spends a similar proportion of its GDP on health as Italy, New Zealand and Norway. It spends more than United Kingdom and Japan, but considerably less than the United States.

In 2006-07, expenditure on hospitals was $34,065 million (39.0% of total recurrent health expenditure), made up of $26,964 million on public hospital services and $7,101 million on private hospitals.

Expenditure on medical services totalled $16,701 million (19.1%), medications $11,957 million (13.7%) and dental services $5,737 million (6.6%). A further $3,276 million (3.8%) was spent on other health practitioner services, such as physiotherapy, chiropractic and podiatry.

States and territories
The largest single area of health expenditure by state and territory governments is public hospitals services. In 2006-07, state and territory governments spent $14,334 million or 67.8% of their total recurrent health expenditure on public hospital services. In addition, a large part of these governments' $2,177 million capital expenditure and $1,337 million capital consumption related to public hospital services.

---

Long term trends in health expenditure

Health expenditure grew from $662 million in 1960-61 to $94,003 million in 2006-07. Health expenditure as a proportion of GDP more than doubled over the last four and a half decades, from 3.8% in 1960-61 to 9.0% in 2006-07. Health expenditure per person increased from $62 to $4,507 over the period.

The way health goods and services are funded, particularly by the Australian Government and the non-government sector, was quite different in 2006-07 from what had prevailed in 1960-61. Despite similarities in the overall proportions of expenditure - the Australian Government was responsible for 27.1% of total expenditure in 1960-61 and 42.4% in 2006-07 - there were major differences in the way that funding was provided. In 1960-61, tax expenditures accounted for 30.0% of Australian Government expenditure on health. In 2006-07, tax expenditures made up 1.0% of Australian Government health expenditure. Similarly, tax expenditures by the Australian Government greatly reduced the net expenditure by non-government sources in 1960-61, but this was no longer the case in 2006-07.

---

Disease expenditures

The seven disease groups that accounted for the greatest health expenditure in Australia in 2004-05 were:

These seven conditions together accounted for $29,827 million, or 57% of total allocated health expenditure.
For 2004-05 cardiovascular disease was the most expensive group ($5.9 billion or 11.2% of expenditure), and oral health was the second most expensive ($5.3 billion or 10.1% of expenditure).
 

>>For more information go to the Burden of disease portal

---

For further information please email us at .

The Expenditure and Economics Unit contributes also to the Institute's biennial health publication Australia's Health, the latest release being Australia's Health 2008.

---

Last reviewed by on 11 November 2008