Health Expenditure Data, Analysis and Policy Relevance in Australia, 1967 to 2020

Since 1985, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has published 85 health expenditure publications. It has gradually extended the scope of these publications by extending the health accounts to detail expenditure by disease and age/sex, by State, Territory and remoteness and by Indigenous status. These enhanced health expenditure databases were then used to understand in detail the drivers of health expenditure. Understanding the drivers of health expenditure enables policy makers to understand where to intervene so as to maximise the health improvements that arise from health expenditure growth.