Total out-of-pocket health costs grew 3 percent to 30.6 billion AUD (20.7 billion U.S. dollars) in financial year 2017-18. It represents 54.8 percent more in real terms than was spent 10 years earlier in 2007-08.
Australian government invested 77.1 billion AUD (52.3 billion U.S. dollars) in healthcare in 2017-18, representing a real increase of 2.3 percent from the previous year.
Medicare, Australia's publicly-funded universal health care system, covers some or all of the costs of seeing a general practitioner (GP) or specialist. Patients in a public hospital also have their stay covered by Medicare.
It does not, however, cover private patient hospital costs, medical costs incurred overseas, ambulance services, dental work, medical and hospital services which are not clinically necessary.
The government also subsidizes medicines deemed necessary through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Stephen Duckett, a health economist with leading think-tank the Grattan Institute, said that the growth in expenses was "a serious concern, especially at a time when household budgets are under pressure because of flat wage growth."
"It may mean people will find it harder to afford to see a doctor, with long term health consequences," he told The Sydney Morning Herald.
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