While spending on health goods and services has increased overall, spending on pharmaceuticals has slowed, despite an increasing number of prescriptions dispensed, according to a report released today by the AIHW.
The report, Health expenditure Australia 2013-14: analysis by sector, looks at spending on particular areas of health, and is a companion report to Health expenditure Australia 2013-14, released in September this year.
Of recurrent expenditure in 2013-14, $58.8 billion was spent on hospitals, $54.7 billion on primary health care and $32.0 billion on other health goods and services.
In 2013-14, unreferred medical services (for example, visits to a general practitioner) accounted for the greatest share of primary health care funding at 19.3%.
“This was in contrast to earlier in the decade, when benefit-paid pharmaceuticals attracted the most spending in the primary health care sector,” says AIHW spokesperson Dr Adrian Webster.
Spending on benefit-paid pharmaceuticals slowed over the last three years, despite a steady increase in the number of prescriptions dispensed.
In 2013-14, the growth in benefit-paid pharmaceuticals expenditure was 1% in real terms, compared with a 6.3% growth in the number of prescriptions dispensed (the highest in the decade).
“This suggests that slower growth in both government and non-government spending in this area did not mean fewer services were delivered,” Dr Webster says.