Health expenditure Australia 2023–24

In 2023–24, an estimated $23.6 billion was spent on services where individuals were referred by a general practitioner or medical specialist to a non-hospital specialist or allied health professional. Of this amount, two in every three dollars were funded by the Australian Government (68.5%, or $16.2 billion), mainly through the MBS, and the remainder was funded by non‑government entities (31.5%, or $7.4 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), 2013–14 to 2023–24

⁽ᵃ⁾ Constant price health spending is in 2023–24 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 2023–24, spending on referred medical services increased by 2.9% ($0.7 billion) in real terms. Spending by the Australian Government increased by 2.8% ($0.4 billion) and non-government entities increased by 3.1% ($0.2 billion).

Over the decade, referred medical expenses grew at an average annual real rate of 1.1%. This was primarily driven by an average annual growth rate of 4.2% in the non-government sources.