The Australian government often says the nation needs to curb its health spending.
Health spending was mentioned in one of Sussan Ley’s first statements as Minister of Health and Sport.
“In the last decade, spending on Medicare has more than doubled from $8 billion in 2004 to $20 billion today, yet we raise only $10 billion from the Medicare levy,” Ms Ley said.
That comment was the same, word-for-word, as what Prime Minister Tony Abbott and former Minister of Health Peter Dutton said in December.
Last May's budget contained a proposed $7 GP co-payment to give the medical industry what the government called a "price signal", but the government later dumped the unpopular co-payment.
But, just how efficient could our healthcare system be? The next episode of Insight, 8.30pm on Tuesday, explores this question.
While Australia’s healthcare system might contain inefficiencies, the nation’s spending from government and private sources of funding is roughly the same as other OECD countries.
Australia spends a slightly lower proportion of its gross domestic product on healthcare, compared to other nations in the OECD’s health expenditure database.
The public funding spent on healthcare as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country's borders) is particularly low in Australia.
Per person, Australia has spent more on health than the OECD average ($US per capita) for more than a decade.
While Australia's healthcare spending per person is higher than the OECD average, Australia also has a higher Gross Domestic Product per capita, according to the OECD's database.
