THE Australian Institute of Health and Welfare yesterday released the latest national health expenditure figures, reporting that total health spending has returned to pre-pandemic trends.
The 2022-23 spend totalled $252.5 billion, equivalent to almost $10,000 per person or 9.9% of GDP.
Health spending decreased by 0.3% in real terms, which was lower than the decade average annual growth of 3.3%.
Government health spending, which was around $100 billion, decreased by 2.6% while non-government spending increased by around 5.8% in 2022-23.
The main non-government sources were individuals (53%) and private health insurance providers (26%) .
Spending on hospitals was just over $107 billion, an increase of almost 5% compared with the previous years, while spending on primary care decreased by over 8% to $83 billion.
Cancer generated the highest spend, followed by cardiovascular diseases and musculoskeletal disorders, which together accounted for a third of disease spending.
Spend on conditions within disease groups was highest for injuries from falls ($5.1 billion), osteoarthritis ($4.9 billion) and back pain ($3.9 billion).
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