Australia's healthcare spending rises above 10% of GDP

 05-Oct-17, The Guardian 

Health expenditure in Australia exceeded 10% of gross domestic product for the first time in 2015-16. The growth in health spending continues to slow, but not to the same extent as GDP growth. 

Image: Alamy Stock Photo / The Guardian

In 2015-16, AUD170 bn (USD132 bn) was spent on health, AUD6 bn (3.6%) more in real terms than in 2014–15, figures from the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare show. 

Health economist with the Grattan Institute, Dr Stephen Duckett, said the share of the economy represented by health had hit 10.3% largely due to a slowing increase in GDP. A professor of health economics with the University of Melbourne, Philip Clarke, said state and federal governments needed to act now to avoid a spending and funding crisis.

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