Australia’s health expenditure was expected to be a staggering $270.5 billion for the 2023-24 financial year. This milestone marks an important turning point as the nation moves into a post pandemic world. Though cumulatively, this spending constitutes 10.1 percent of our nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). More importantly, it shines a light on the urgent health challenges that Australians are facing. Cancer remains the most costly disease category. Resource allocation is a mirror reflecting healthcare priorities with respect to the current and future economic burden of this disease.
In terms of government recurrent expenditure on health, cancer has ranked first out of all diseases in Australia since 2017-2018. In 2023-24, spending on cancer reached $19.7 billion—over double the amount to treat cancer in 2013-14. This big financial investment reaffirms the current battle against all forms of cancer. The war on lung cancer and the war on non-melanoma skin cancer, each of these wars costing $1.87 billion. The next biggest contributors are bowel cancer ($1.85 billion) and breast cancer ($1.84 billion).
Next to cancer, cardiovascular diseases were responsible for the second-highest spending at $16.9 billion, and musculoskeletal disorders drew in $16.3 billion. These numbers really help bring home the cost and urgency of these diseases to the Australian public and electorate. These data put new context on the well care imperative, as well as infectious diseases and GI disorders, as major drivers of health spending. They are responsible for $13.9 billion, $13.3 billion, and $13.1 billion in costs, respectively.
The Australian federal government has a central role in the financing of health care. Public funds currently account for about 69 percent of total health spending. This includes $106.2 billion in capital and operating assistance from the federal government and $82 billion from state and territory governments’ administrations. This level of funding demonstrates a recognition of the imperative to protect and strengthen public health infrastructure in communities around the country.
Mental health continues to be a blindspot within health spending. Other common conditions such as depression and anxiety pull in a lot of money—with $2.7 billion and $2.6 billion going to each in kind. Most striking, schizophrenia has the most costly per case at an average of $29,000. Mental health conditions and substance use disorders together accounted for a combined cost of $12.4 billion. This higher figure ranked them seventh among all categories of spending.
The burden of disease goes much further than the direct costs of healthcare. In 2024 cancer represented 16.4 percent of total DALYs. This statistic further underscores the deep toll cancer takes on the quality of life for so many Americans. Mental health conditions were actually the leading cause of health loss as well, accounting for 14.8 percent of the total decline of DALYs.
High human costs from neglected diseases do not necessarily justify additional resources within the health system. Yet spending levels are still quite low, even for these game-changing conditions.
“In cases where a particular disease has relatively high human cost but low spending, it does not necessarily mean that health spending should be increased,” – SBS News
To address problems such as road transport injuries or smoking-related diseases, we need to spend outside the healthcare sector. We need to focus more on education and environmental health initiatives to create lasting change.
“Road transport injuries or smoking-related diseases, for example, may be also addressed by investments and responses outside the health system, such as through education, transport, environmental health or other social services.” – SBS News
Australia’s health spending 2018-19 analysis shows a nuanced and complicated picture. Some diseases require the lion’s share of dollars while others require breakthrough solutions that only happen outside traditional healthcare channels.
