Spending on hospitals

Expenditure on hospitals reflects the funds spent to pay for the clinical and non-clinical services they provide. Public and private hospitals receive funding from the Australian Government, state and territory governments, private health insurance funds and out-of-pocket payments by individuals.

Public and private hospitals are funded from a range of sources, reflecting the types of patients they treat and the services they provide.

Explore more information about spending on hospitals via the links at the bottom of the page.

How much was spent on hospitals?

Public hospitals

• Recurrent expenditure (excluding capital) on Australia’s public hospitals was $57.7 billion in 2017–18.
• In 2017–18, the state and territory governments and the Australian Government funded about 91% of public hospital expenditure.
• Between 2013–14 and 2017–18, funding increased by an average of 3.7% each year in real terms (adjusted for inflation).

Private hospitals

• In 2017–18, the recurrent expenditure on Australia’s private hospitals was $16.3 billion.
• The majority (71% or 11.6 billion) of private hospital care was funded by the non-government sector including private health insurance and out-of-pocket payments by patients.

Where do I find more information?

More information, Appendixes and caveat information, and data tables are available in the Info & downloads section.

• Health expenditure Australia 2017–18

Definitions of the terms used in this section are available in the Glossary.