Health system expenditure 2022-2023 (AIHW)

In 2022-2023, the expenditure for asthma was an estimated $1,192 million spent on the treatment and management of asthma (out of $172 billion total health expenditure in 2022-2023), making asthma the third most costly respiratory disease after COPD and Upper respiratory conditions.

Asthma expenditure included:
– $378M in hospital expenditure (public ED, admitted and outpatient + private hospital services) with $150M spent on public hospital admissions and $125M spent on public hospital ED
– $742M in primary care (incl. allied health and other services, dental expenditure, GP, and PBS expenditure), making asthma the most costly respiratory disease for primary health care: this includes $186M for GP services and $534M in PBS/medication expenditure, ranking first respiratory disease for both
– $72M in referred medical services, ranking second most costly respiratory disease: $48M was spent on Specialist services.