Health spending grows 10% to $87 billion

Health expenditure in Australia was $87.3 billion in 2004-05, according to a new report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Total growth since 2003-04 was about 10%, or 6% adjusted for inflation, and average health services expenditure was up $361 per person to $4,319.

Health Expenditure Australia 2004-05 shows that as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product, expenditure on health increased to 9.8%, up from 9.4% in 2003-04 and 8.1% in 1994-95.

The increase, one of the biggest worldwide, was felt particularly by consumers, where a 6.9% rise in personal bills outstripped the 6% overall rise that was borne largely by state and federal governments. Of the $27.7 billion in non-government health funding, individual out-of-pocket payments accounted for 59.7%, or $16.5 billion, while private health accounted for $5.7 billion (20.5%).

Among the big personal cost items were spectacles and hearing aids, whose costs rose 24% to an average of $144 a year.