Veterans, and war widows and widowers, use health services at
similar levels to the rest of the community-once allowance is made
for age, service-related disability and marital status, according
to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health
and Welfare (AIHW).
The report, Health Care Usage and Costs-a comparison of
veterans and war widows and widowers with the rest of the
community focuses on people entitled to a Gold Card under the
Veterans Entitlements Act and their use of services from 1997 to
2000.
Report co-author John Goss said that the study compared Gold
Card holders with the rest of the community in three major health
expenditure areas: hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and local medical
officers/general practitioners.
'The Department of Veterans' Affairs commissioned us to do this
work to gain a better understanding of how health services were
delivered to their Gold Card holders, to whom, and at what cost',
Mr Goss said.
'But in analysing these figures we have to take account of the
quite marked differences between the veteran population and the
rest of the community'.
'The most obvious difference is that veterans, and war widows
and widowers, are much older than the rest of the community. In
1999, 78% of the Gold Card population was aged 70 to 84 years,
compared with 6% for the rest of the Australian population.'
'Also, around 40% of the Gold Card population have a
service-related disability, which is a key factor in the use of
health services.'
'Overall, we found that, as would be expected of an older
population as compared with a younger population, there was much
greater use of hospital services, medical services and
pharmaceuticals. Compared with the rest of the community of similar
age, the use by veterans is still higher, but is consistent with
their greater levels of disability.'
'Female Gold Card holders without a service-related disability
had higher health service use than the rest of the community. But
they are mostly widows, who are known to have poorer health on
average than married women.'
'We found little difference in costliness of hospital services
and pharmaceuticals for the Gold Card holders compared with the
rest of the community. GP-type services were 12% more expensive for
the veterans, but this corresponds with the fact that DVA contracts
pay 100% of the Medicare Schedule fee, whereas the average cost for
older patients in the general community was 88% of the Schedule fee
in 1999-00.'
17 December 2002
Further information: John Goss, AIHW, tel. 02
6244 1151
Paul Jelfs, AIHW, 02 6244 1145
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW,
tel. 02 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for details.