Health Expenditure In Australia

When considering about the health expenditure in Australia, mainly government, private health insurers and individuals are sources included in the expenditure. According to the Australian institute of health and welfare mentions that in 2011-2012 Australia has spent around $140.2 billion in health and spending for health is growing faster than the population (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare , 2016). When look into the roles of the government one of the major responsibility is to manage Medicare. Medicare provides universal access to every Australian which most of them considering it as a backbone of the Australian Healthcare system. Medicare provides free hospital treatments in public hospitals and range of pharmaceutical and medical
services. In 2010-2011, Medicare has paid $16.4 billion of benefits which is an average of 14.1services for person. The Common wealth government also has the responsibility for the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS), Purchasing vaccinations for the national immunization program, funding for community, education of health professionals and many more. At the same time state and territories have their own responsibilities as well. Managing and administration of public hospitals, delivering of preventative services such as breast cancer screening, funding and managing of mental health services are a few of them (Parliment of Australia, 2013).