You are here:

  • Print

released: 18 Dec 2009 author: AIHW media release

Expenditure on health and high care residential aged care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people amounted to $2,976 million in 2006-07, or 3.1% of national expenditure on health and high care residential aged care. In 2006-07, the average expenditure per person on health and high care residential aged care was $5,696 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. For non-Indigenous people, the average expenditure per person was $4,557. The ratio of Indigenous to non-Indigenous expenditure per person was 1.25. For the Australian Government schemes of Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), total benefits paid per Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person were 59% of the amount spent on non-Indigenous people. Expenditure on health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2006-07 provides policy makers and program managers with detailed information for further analysis.

ISSN 1323-5850; ISBN 978 1 74024 990 4; Cat. no. HWE 48; 72pp.; Internet only

Full publication

Publication table of contents

  • Preliminary material
    • Title and verso pages
    • Contents
    • Preface
    • Acknowledgments
    • Abbreviations and symbols
    • Summary1
  • Body section
    1. Introduction
      1. Background
      2. Context
      3. Delivery and financing of health services
      4. Definitions and concepts
      5. Data quality and limitations
        • Data sources
        • Quality of expenditure estimates
        • Quality of data on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service use
      6. Economies of scale and geographic isolation
      7. Key definitions
    2. Population, health status and incomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
      1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population
      2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health status
      3. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incomes
    3. Total expenditure and funding
      1. Total health and residential aged care expenditure
        • Total health expenditure
      2. Total health funding
      3. Australian Government funding
      4. Funding by state and territory governments
    4. Government and non-government expenditure
      1. Direct expenditure by the Australian Government
      2. Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
      3. Expenditure by state and territory governments
      4. Non-government
      5. Expenditure by program management
        • Program management
        • Expenditure levels by program
        • Expenditure patterns
    5. Expenditure on primary and secondary/tertiary health services
    6. Changes over time
  • End matter
    • Appendixes
      1. Methodology
        1. Scope
          • Definition of health expenditure
          • Classification of areas of health expenditure
          • Public hospital and public hospital services expenditure
          • Primary and secondary/tertiary care
        2. Sources of data and methods of estimation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander proportion
          • Hospital costs
          • Community health services
          • Medicare Benefits Schedule and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
        3. Deflation and constant price expenditure aggregates
      2. Summary of the use of Medicare’s Voluntary Indigenous Identifier
        • Medicare Voluntary Indigenous Identifier data
          • Use of VII data in the 2006–07 report
          • Method of estimating benefits paid and fees paid for services provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients
    • References
    • List of tables
    • List of figures
    • List of boxes

Notes and corrections

The current version of the publication is presented above.

Previous versions of files that have been updated or corrected are presented below.

  1. This version of Expenditure on health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, 2006-07 differs from the original (published 18 December 2009) in that it corrects estimates for expenditure on high care residential aged care services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

    The total expenditure on high care residential aged care services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in 2006-07 was $66.7 million. The ratio for health and high care residential aged care expenditure for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to non-Indigenous people is 1.25.The areas of expenditure contributing to total high care residential aged care services expenditure for Indigenous people in 2006-07 were: Australian Government subsidies (41.4%); resident copayments (34.3%); supplements (12.6%); and flexible aged care (11.7%). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander high care residential aged care expenditure estimate now includes expenditure on the ‘Australian Government Flexible Aged Care Program’. The tables and commentary included in the report which include, or refer to, high care residential aged care expenditure have been amended to reflect the revised estimates. (25 March 2010)

Recommended citation

AIHW 2009. Expenditure on health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2006-07. Health and welfare expenditure series no. 39. Cat. no. HWE 48. Canberra: AIHW. Viewed 13 June 2013 <http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=6442468323>.