Australians are forking out more from their own pockets to pay the nation's $161 billion health bill.
Health spending reached 10 per cent of Australia's gross domestic product for the first time in 2014/15, according to official figures released on Thursday.
But the proportion footed by government fell by almost one per cent from the previous year.
Governments covered about 70 per cent of the health bill in 2014/15, spending $108 billion.
Patients spent more than $28 billion while private health insurers spent $14 billion.
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While the government contribution grew by 1.3 per cent from the previous year, it was significantly lower than the average annual increase of 4.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, out-of-pocket costs for patients grew 3.7 per cent, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report on health expenditure in 2014/15.
The Institute's Dr Adrian Webster says growth in spending by non-government sources, including patients and private health insurers, was higher than for government at 5.9 per cent, well above the average annual increase of 5.4 per cent.
He said states and territories were to blame for a slow-down in government spending on health.
"The slow growth in government spending was mostly driven by a fall in state and territory government spending - the only time this occurred in the decade," he said.
"While growth in health spending is slow, it is faster than growth in other areas of the economy."
State and territory governments contributed $42 billion or 26 per cent of the overall bill, a fall of 0.4 per cent in real terms from 2013/14.
The federal government spent $66 billion or 41 per cent, up 2.4 per cent from the previous year.
