Australia Yearbook - 2001

354 Year Book Australia 2001
from 1 July 2000. A high FED costs over $500 for
single participants and over $1,000 for families.
In 1998–99, revenue raised from the Medicare
levy was approximately 17% of total
Commonwealth health expenditure and 8.2% of
total national health expenditure. The Australian
Taxation Office estimated revenue from the
Medicare levy to be $4.1b in 1998–99.
The Commonwealth Government’s
funding of hospitals
In 1998–99, the Commonwealth contributed
$5.6b to the States in public hospital funding
under the Australian Health Care Agreements
through Health Care Grants.
Of this amount, approximately $5.5b was paid to
the States under the General and Adjustments
components of Base Health Care Grants. The
remainder of Base Health Care Grants consisted
of funding for:
mental health for the implementation of the
Second National Mental Health Plan—$50m;
quality improvement and enhancement to
fund and reward quality improvement and
enhancement practices in our
hospitals—$75m; and
palliative care, to implement the National
Palliative Care Strategy—$28m.
The remainder of funding under the Agreements
is available for national initiatives in the areas of
mental health, palliative care and case mix
development.
Total health expenditure
For 1998–99, the preliminary estimate of total
expenditure on health services (including both
public and private sectors) was just over $50.3b,
compared with expenditure of just over $47b in
1997–98. This represented an average rate of
health services expenditure in 1998–99 of
$2,671 per person. In 1998–99, governments
provided more than two-thirds (70%) of the
funding for health expenditure, while the
remaining 30% was provided by the private
sector. Health expenditure in volume terms grew
at an average annual rate of 4.1% between
1989–90 and 1998–99 (table 9.34). In 1998–99,
health services expenditure as a proportion of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 8.5%. This
represented an increase from 8.3% in 1996–97
and 1997–98 and 8.2% in each of the years
1991–92 to 1995–96.
Based on available data, it was estimated that
about $853m was spent on health services
provided to Indigenous people in 1995–96.
This figure represented 2.2% of total health
expenditure for that year, and included both
government and private expenditure. In 1995–96
the estimated expenditure per person was
$2,320 for Indigenous people, compared to
$2,163 for non-Indigenous people (Deeble et al.
1998).
9.34 TOTAL HEALTH EXPENDITURE(a) AND RATE OF GROWTH
Expenditure
Current
prices
Chain volume
measures(a)
Current
prices
Rate of growth
Chain volume
measures(a)
Year
$m
$m
%
%
1989–90 28 800 34 609 n.a. n.a.
1990–91 31 270 35 313 8.6 2.0
1991–92 33 087 36 377 5.8 3.0
1992–93 34 993 38 304 5.8 5.3
1993–94 36 787 39 798 5.1 3.9
1994–95 38 967 41 324 5.9 3.8
1995–96 41 783 43 392 7.2 5.0
1996–97 44 482 45 330 6.5 4.5
1997–98 47 030 47 030 5.7 3.7
1998–99(b) 50 346 49 503 7.1 5.3
Average annual growth rate 1989–90 to 1992–93 . . . . 6.7 3.4
Average annual growth rate 1992–93 to 1998–99 . . . . 6.1 4.2
Average annual growth rate 1989–90 to 1998–99 . . . . 6.4 4.1
(a) Reference year 1997–98. Chain volume measures are discussed in detail in the section Chain volume or ‘real’ GDP of Chapter
29, National accounts. (b) Based on preliminary AIHW and ABS estimates.
Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Health Expenditure Data Base.