'Health expenditure Australia 2012–13: analysis by sector' from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
indicates that
In 2012–13, $55.9bn was spent on hospitals in Australia, $52.9bn on primary health care and $29.9bn on other areas of health spending.
Capital expenditure accounted for a further $8.6bn.
All funders increased their expenditure on Hospitals between 2002-03 and 2012-13. Growth in state and territory government funding, at $10.6bn (a 78.6% increase), was almost double the growth of Australian Government expenditure ($5.4bn, up 37.2% growth).
Non-government expenditure grew by $5.6bn (88.6%).
Over the decade, total spending on Primary health care grew from $32.7 billion to $52.9 billion. Primary health care spending is shared relatively evenly between Australian Government (about 43%) and non-government sources (about 41%).
In 2012-13, the Australian Government accounted for $17.9 billion, or nearly 60%, of the total recurrent expenditure in Other recurrent areas of health care. Individuals provided the next largest source of funds, with an expenditure of $5.4 billion in 2012-13.
In the past 5 years, from 2008-09 to 2012-13, the share of recurrent expenditure on Primary health care has increased slightly from 37.1% to 38.1%, whereas expenditure on Other recurrent areas has declined marginally from 22.2% to 21.5%. There has been no clear trend in the Hospitals proportion over this time, beginning at 40.5% in 2008-09 and ending at 40.3% in 2012-13.
The ratio of Australian Government expenditure on health to tax revenue was 24.8% in 2012-13, down from 26.9% in 2011-12.
The ratio of state and territory government expenditure to tax revenue rose from 17.7% in 2002-03 to 24.5% in 2012-13.
The ratio of non-government health expenditure to individual net worth varied throughout the decade, beginning the period at 0.61% in 2002-03 and ending the period at a decade high of 0.66% in 2012-13.
In 2002–03, medical services attracted the highest share of primary health care funding at
21.9%. This was a change from previous years, where benefit-paid pharmaceuticals had
tended to attract the most spending. This change occurred as a result of a decline in the
benefit-paid pharmaceuticals proportion between 2009–10 and 2012–13.
The share of recurrent funding for All other medications in 2002–03 was 10.2%. Over the
decade, the share increased to 17.5% in 2012–13. All other
medications includes pharmaceuticals for which no Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) or
Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS) benefit was paid, such as private
prescriptions, under copayment prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines.
Public health and Other health practitioner services attracted the smallest share of primary
health-care funding, at around 5% and 10%, respectively, across the decade.
The share of primary health care funding for dental services was 18.1% in 2012–13. This
share gradually declined to 15.9% in 2007–08 before rising to 17.2% in 2009–10. In 2012–13,
the share was 16.4%.
