Health expenditure Australia 2022–23

During 2022–23, $21.3 billion was spent on services where a person had been referred by a general practitioner or medical specialist to another non-hospital specialist or allied health professional. Two in every three dollars were funded by the Australian Government (68.5%, or $14.6 billion) mainly through the MBS, and the remainder by non‑government entities (31.5%, or $6.7 billion). State and territory governments do not contribute funding to this area (Figure 28).

Figure 28: Spending on referred medical services, by source of funds, constant prices ^(a), 2012–13 to 2022–23

⁽ᵃ⁾ Constant price health spending is in 2022–23 prices.

Notes

1. Non-government expenditure consists of individual and health insurance spending only.
2. There was no state and territory government spending on referred medical services.

Source: AIHW Health Expenditure Database (Table 33).

In 2022–23, spending on referred medical services decreased by 5.9% from 2021–22 in real terms. Spending by the Australian Government decreased by 12.0% ($2.0 billion) while non-government entities increased by 11% ($0.7 billion) in 2022–23.

Over the decade, referred medical expenses increased by an average of 1.3% each year. This was as a result of an average annual growth of 0.2% by the Australian Government and 4.3% by non-government funding.