Health expenditure Australia 2023–24

In 2023–24, total health spending was distributed across health services, with estimates of:

• 42.1% ($113.8 billion) on hospitals
• 33.0% ($89.1 billion) on primary health care (including public health)
• 8.7% ($23.6 billion) on referred medical services

The remaining 16.2% or $43.9 billion, was on other services, research and capital spending (Figure 23). 

Over the period up to 2018–19, spending on hospitals has tended to increase faster than spending on primary health care (4.5% on average per year compared with 2.6%, in real terms). However, this appeared to shift during the pandemic (2019–20 to 2021–22), when spending on primary health care (including public health) increased in real terms by 7.6% on average per year, more quickly than spending on hospital services at an average annual growth of 4.0%. The two-year period from 2022–23 to 2023–24, spending on primary health care (including public health) decreased in real terms by 4.0%, while spending on hospitals increased by 2.9%.

Figure 23: Proportion of total health spending, by area of expenditure, current prices, 2013–14 to 2023–24

Notes:

1. Spending on the medical expenses tax rebate is not included.
2. Other services include patient transport services, aids and appliances, and administration.

Source: AIHW Health Expenditure Database (Table 28).