Policy

Part of the CTU Working Papers on Health, this paper asks whether Budget 2017 met the level of funding will be required to maintain health services?

This spreadsheet updates the data used to assess the requirements for health spending before the 2017-18 Budget with actual budget data.

Part of the CTU Working Papers on Health, this paper asks, prior to Budget 2017, what level of funding will be required to maintain health services?

This spreadsheet updates the data used to assess the requirements for health spending in the coming year with actual budget data.

This spreadsheet provides the data used to assess the requirements for health spending in the coming year.

This spreadsheet provides the data used to assess the requirements for health spending in the 2017-18 year.

The Report of the Ministerial Review Group, Meeting the Challenge (the “Horn Report”), claims that real health care costs will increase by almost 100% in the next 20 years as the population ages “and as more of us live longer with chronic long-term conditions”. This scenario is used to argue that the only way we… Read more »

The following are the main conclusions of a comparison of the 2013 Budget with the analysis the CTU carried out prior to the Budget1 which found that $445 million was required to just keep operational expenditure up with rising costs, population growth, and ageing.

In total, the operational expenses portion of the Health vote will need to rise by 3.5 percent or $499 million from $14,135 million to $14,633 million to maintain the current levels of service.

This analysis compares the 2014 Budget with the analysis the CTU carried out prior to the Budget, which found that $499 million was required to just keep operational expenditure up with rising costs, population growth, and ageing.1 This analysis includes an updated CPI estimate, adjusting the required funding to $493 million. It also examines the… Read more »

The health system needs more money each year just to maintain its current standards and services. This is to cover such things as population growth, general cost increases, including costs of new technology and pharmaceuticals, and salary costs.

This analysis compares the 2015 Budget with the analysis the CTU carried out prior to the Budget, which found a conservatively estimated $629 million of additional funding was required to maintain current levels of services and pay for new initiatives announced by the Government prior to the Budget.

The health system needs more money each year just to maintain its current standards and services. The population increases, the population ages, new treatments become available and general costs rise, as do new technology, pharmaceutical and salary costs.

The Health Vote in the 2010 Budget was barely adequate to keep up with rising costs and population growth and ageing, but not adequate to fund new treatments. Instead it funded increases in services at the cost of cuts in others. In addition there are substantial new cost pressures as a result of inflation, forecast… Read more »

The Health Vote in the 2011 Budget was an estimated $127 million behind what is needed to stand still. While it listed services that will receive more funding, these come at the cost of cuts in other services.

As pressure continues for public health services to meet increasing health needs on tighter budgets, business is booming in the private sector. There are two reasons for this:  increasing levels of public funds are going to the private sector to provide services, and  lack of resources, and cuts, in the public sector are… Read more »

Every year hundreds of millions of dollars are spent treating people in hospital who don’t need to be there. If our primary health care system was functioning more effectively we would save millions of dollars and empty thousands of hospital beds.

The health system needs more money each year just to maintain its current standards and services. The population increases, the population ages, new treatments become available and general costs rise, as do new technology, pharmaceutical and salary costs. If we want improvements in the health system or to address existing problems such as persistent deficits… Read more »

The following are the main conclusions of a comparison of the 2012 Budget with the analysis the CTU carried out prior to the Budget1 which found that $506 million was required to just keep up with rising costs, population growth, and ageing.

 In total, the operational expenses portion of the Health vote will need to rise by 3.2 percent or $445 million from $13,836 million to $14,281 million to maintain the current levels of service. The $445 million is simply to keep up with population and cost increases. To provide for additional services and new treatments… Read more »