Patient characteristics
In 2017–18, 66% of Australians aged 65 or over received a Medicare-subsidised non-hospital allied health service, whereas 31% of Australians aged 64 or under received a service.
A higher proportion of females (42%) accessed services than males (31%).
The proportion of Australians who received services varied depending on where they lived. The proportions were similar for residents of Inner regional areas and Major cities (39% and 37% respectively), but decreased with increasing remoteness to 17% of people living in Very remote areas. Lower use of Medicare-subsidised allied health services in remote and very remote areas may be partly attributed to these populations relying more on general practitioners (GPs) to provide health care services (AIHW 2019d) or reflect that services may be accessed through other arrangements that are not captured in the Medicare statistics (e.g. Aboriginal medical services).
Spending
In 2017–18, $1.7 billion was spent on Medicare-subsidised allied health services outside of hospitals. This comprised:
- $1.43 billion in Medicare benefits paid by the Australian Government
- $0.24 billion in patient out-of-pocket costs.
Almost three-quarters of spending was on mental health care ($0.77 billion, 46%) and optometry ($0.45 billion, 27%) services combined.
In 2017–18, 17.2 million Medicare-subsidised allied health services (76%) were bulk-billed (indicating that patients did not incur costs for these services). The remaining 24% of services were patient-billed (that is, the patient incurred out-of-pocket costs).
For those who did incur out-of-pocket costs (18% of patients—1.6 million people), the average out-of-pocket cost per patient was $152 in the year. By service type:
- 5.7% of optometry patients paid out-of-pocket costs; these patients paid $34 in out-of-pocket costs (on average) in 2017–18
- 54% of patients who received mental health care from an eligible allied health practitioner under Medicare paid out-of-pocket costs; these patients paid $274 in out-of-pocket costs (on average) in 2017–18.
As for many of the allied health professions, dental services are funded, and can be accessed, in a number of ways—privately or through public dental clinics or DVA (based on eligibility). For those who purchased services privately, some may have had all or part of the costs of the service subsidised. In 2018–19:
- 42.9 million dental services were subsidised by private health insurance providers (APRA 2019)
- 5.4 million services were subsidised under the Australian Government’s Child Dental Benefits Schedule (Department of Health 2019a) which supports provision of basic dental services to eligible children aged 2–17.
Data on dental services provided in Australia are limited, especially in relation to services provided in the private sector, as no comprehensive national data sources are available. The most complete information about Australians’ use of dental services is available via national population surveys.
Dental visits
The National Child Oral Health Study 2012–14 (Brennan et al. 2016) found that for children aged 5–14, it is estimated that:
- most (57%) had made their first dental visit before the age of 5
- the majority (87%) first visited a dental professional for a check-up (rather than for a problem)
- the majority (81%) had last visited a dental professional in the 12 months prior to the survey and most (57%) had last visited a private dental service
- 1 in 9 (11%) had never visited a dental provider
- the proportion of children who last visited a dental professional for a check-up (which reflects a favourable visiting pattern) varied by household income. Nearly 9 in 10 children (88%) living in households with high income last visited the dentist for a check-up, compared with 7 in 10 children (71%) from households with low income.
The Patient Experience Survey 2018–19 (ABS 2019) found that for people aged 15 and over, it is estimated that:
- nearly half (49%) visited a dental professional in the last 12 months
- of those who needed to and saw a dental professional, the majority (58%) visited more than once in the last 12 months
- around 1 in 8 (12%) people who saw a dental professional received public dental care
- around 3 in 10 (28%) who needed to see a dental professional delayed seeing or did not see one at least once in the previous 12 months—and around 2 in 10 (18%) reported that cost was a reason for delaying or not seeing a dental professional.
Spending
In 2017–18, around $10.5 billion was spent on dental services in Australia. The majority of this cost (around $6.0 billion, or 57%) was paid by patients directly, with individuals spending on average $243 on dental services over the 12-month period, not including premiums paid for private health insurance (AIHW 2019e). Private health insurance providers financed around $2.0 billion (19%) of total expenditure for dental services (AIHW 2019e). See Health expenditure.
For more information on allied health and dental services, see:
References
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) 2011. ABS Australian demographic statistics, Jun 2011. ABS cat. no. 3101.0. Canberra: ABS.
ABS 2018. ABS Australian demographic statistics, Jun 2018 . ABS cat. no. 3101.0. Canberra: ABS.
ABS 2019. Patient experiences in Australia: summary of findings, 2018–19. cat. no. 4839.0. Canberra: ABS.
AHPA (Allied Health Professions Australia) 2019. Allied health accreditation. Viewed 11 November 2019.
AIHW 2019a. Medicare-subsidised GP, allied health and specialist health care across local areas: 2013–14 to 2017–18. Cat. no. PHE 254 Canberra: AIHW.
AIHW 2019b. Procedures data cubes. Cat. no. WEB 216. Canberra: AIHW.
AIHW 2019c. Non-admitted patient care 2017–18: Australian hospital statistics. Cat. no. HSE 234 Canberra: AIHW.
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2019d. Rural & remote health. Cat. no. PHE 255. Canberra: AIHW. Viewed 29 May 2020.
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2019e. Health expenditure Australia 2017–18. Cat. no. HWE 077. Canberra: AIHW.
APRA (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority) 2019. Private health insurance benefits trends: ancillary benefits. Sydney: APRA.
Brennan DS, Ju X, Amarasena N, Dooland M, Peres KG, Mejia GC et al. 2016. Patterns of dental services use by Australian children. In: Do LG & Spencer AJ (eds). Oral health of Australian children: the National Child Oral Health Study 2012–14. Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press.
Dental Board of Australia 2018. Registration. Melbourne: Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. Viewed 5 November 2019.
Department of Health 2019a. Annual Medicare statistics—financial year 1984–85 to 2018–19. Canberra: Department of Health. Viewed 26 November 2019.
Department of Health 2019b. Chronic disease management—individual allied health services under Medicare. Canberra: Department of Health. Viewed 26 November 2019.