Health expenditure Australia 2017–18

Publication

Release Date: 25 Sep 2019

Media release

AIHW

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2019) Health expenditure Australia 2017–18, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 16 April 2024. doi:10.25816/5ec5ba12ed174

APA

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2019). Health expenditure Australia 2017–18. Canberra: AIHW. doi:10.25816/5ec5ba12ed174

MLA

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Health expenditure Australia 2017–18. AIHW, 2019. doi:10.25816/5ec5ba12ed174

Vancouver

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Health expenditure Australia 2017–18. Canberra: AIHW; 2019. doi:10.25816/5ec5ba12ed174

Harvard

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2019, Health expenditure Australia 2017–18, AIHW, Canberra. doi:10.25816/5ec5ba12ed174

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Regular reporting of national health expenditure is vital to understanding the health system and its relationship to the economy as whole. In 2017–18:

Total health spending was $185.4 billion, equating to $7,485 per person
Health spending increased by 1.2%, which was lower than the decade average of 3.9%.
The majority of health spending went on hospitals (40%) and primary health care (34%).
Health spending accounted for 10% of overall economic activity.

ISSN: 2205-6610 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-76054-616-8 (Online)
DOI: 10.25816/5ec5ba12ed174
Cat. no: HWE 77
Pages: 66

Findings from this report:

Total health expenditure in 2017–18 was $185.4 billion, a real increase of 1.2% over the year
Expenditure per person decreased by 0.4% to $7,485, the lowest yearly growth over the decade
Spending on hospitals was $74.0 billion, an increase of $3.2 billion since 2016–17
Private health insurers spent on average $1,470 per person covered by a private health insurance policy

Notes

Amendments

25 Sep 2019 - An error was made in the Summary of the report (page iv). Under the heading ‘Increasing per person funding by private health insurers’, the number of people holding private health insurance has increased (not decreased) by almost 2 million since 2007–08.

8 Oct 2019 - An additional table, Table A12: Australian Government Specific Purpose Payments to state and territories, public hospitals, current prices, 2007–08 to 2017–18, has been included in the data tables.

12 Nov 2019 - On page 49 under the heading ‘Dental services’ the second sentence in the second paragraph was changed from ‘However, out-of-pocket expenses where people attend the dentist with no private health cover are not included’ to ‘Out-of-pocket expenses where people attend the dentist with no private health cover is based on a modelled estimate’.

Data quality statement

Health Expenditure Database 2017–18