Immunisation the biggest health dollar spend

Organised immunisation was easily the biggest single health dollar expenditure for Australian health departments during 2004-05 when a total of $1.4 billion – or $71 per person – was spent in Australia.

According to the National Public Health Expenditure Report 2004-05, the greatest proportion (23.6% or $338.3 million) was spent on organised immunisation, followed by selected health promotion ($232.8 million) and communicable disease control ($232.0 million).

Total public health expenditure increased by 13.7% over the previous year. The areas with the strongest growth were organised immunisation (up 26.2% or $70.2 million), prevention of hazardous and harmful drug use (up 15.7% or $26.3 million) and cervical screening (up 15.1% or $13.5 million).

The Australian Government provided $863.3 million or just over 60% of the funding for public health activities in 2004-05.

Of this funding, $468.0 million was spent on the Australian Government’s own programs and $395.3 million was provided to state and territory governments via specific purpose payments to fund agreed state and territory public health activities. The remaining funding of $573.0 million in 2004-05 was provided by the state and territory governments.