Ageing increases health care spending

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) has topped the Australian health care spending list, with the elderly being the most expensive to treat, according to an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report released yesterday.

The report, Health care expenditure on cardiovascular diseases 2008-09, estimated $7,605 million was spent on CVD in 2008-09 – 12% of all health care expenditure in Australia.

The presence of CVD is often related to age. Among elderly people it is both more common and more expensive to treat, which puts upward pressure on expenditure in an ageing population such as Australia's.

Overall, those aged 75 to 84 years had the highest average cost of a hospitalisation with CVD ($10,750 million).

CVD was ranked more expensive to treat ahead of oral health, mental disorders, musculoskeletal conditions, injuries and cancers – which was the next most costly disease group.

Coronary heart disease was the most expensive cardiovascular disease, accounting for more than one quarter of CVD spending ($2,028 million) in 2008-09, followed by stroke ($606 million).

The remaining $4,971 million was spent on other CVDs such as heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, rheumatic heart disease and hypertensive heart disease.

The highest level of overall expenditure was for people aged 75 to 84 years ($2,015 million) followed by those aged 65 to 74 years ($1,908 million).

Expenditure was less ($820 million) for those aged 85 years and over which reflects the smaller numbers of people in this age group.

Per person spending was greatest for people aged 85 years and over for both men and women, at $2,776 and $2,020 respectively.

Hospital admitted patient services was the health care sector that accounted for the majority (59%) of CVD spending at about $4,460 million in 2008-09. This was followed by prescription pharmaceuticals ($1,648 million; 22%) and out of hospital medical expenses ($1,497 million; 20%).

The AIHW is a major national agency set up by the federal government to provide reliable, regular and relevant information and statistics on Australia's health and welfare.