Regular reporting of national health expenditure is important to understanding Australia’s health system and how spending relates to changes such as the ageing population, increased chronic disease prevalence, and medicinal and technological developments.

Australia has a long history of national health expenditure reporting, which started with John Deeble’s work in the 1970s. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has been reporting on health spending for more than 3 decades.

This edition presents estimates of the amount spent on health goods and services in Australia for 2018–19, and the decade leading up to this. This report’s estimates are based on data from the AIHW’s Health Expenditure Database (HED), a collation of more than 50 data sources capturing health spending by governments, individuals, insurers and other private sources. These data are used to derive the Australia’s National Health Accounts (ANHA), reported annually by the AIHW.

Highlights:

• Total health spending was $195.7 billion, equating to $7,772 per person.
• Health spending increased by 3.1%, which was slightly lower than the decade average of 3.5%.
• The majority of health spending went on hospitals (40.4%) and primary health care (33.5%).
• Health spending accounted for 10% of overall economic activity.