Health care expenditure on cardiovascular diseases 2004-05

Summary

Health care expenditure on cardiovascular diseases 2004- 05 is the second report of health care expenditure for cardiovascular diseases. Expenditure estimates are sourced from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Disease Expenditure Database. Expenditure data are presented by age, sex and area of expenditure. Some of the key findings of this report are given below.

• Cardiovascular diseases are the most expensive group of diseases in Australia. Allocated direct health care expenditure on cardiovascular diseases amounted to $5.94 billion in 2004-05, that is 11% of total allocated expenditure.
• Substantially more is spent on males ($321 per person) than on females ($261 per person). Much of this difference is due to higher rates of cardiovascular disease among males than females. However, some may reflect differences in the diagnosis, treatment, care and course of the disease between sexes. Further research is required to better explain this result.
• Expenditure per person increases with age, with those aged over 85 years attracting the most expenditure.
• Spending on hospital-admitted patients accounted for approximately half of all expenditure on cardiovascular diseases. Prescription pharmaceuticals were the next most expensive area of expenditure (28%), followed by out-of-hospital medical services (19%) and research (3%).
• Between 2000-01 and 2004-05, inflation-adjusted expenditure on cardiovascular diseases increased by 18%.