Historical publications

The Ageing Australian Population and Future Health Costs: 1996-2051. Occasional Papers: New Series Number 7

This study projects future health costs attributable to the progressive ageing of the Australian population based on extensive administrative data on medical practitioner visits (to GPs and specialists), prescription drug consumption and hospital admissions. Scenarios based on these cost data were applied to projections of the Australian population by age and sex out to 2051 — by which time the transient effects of the 'baby-boom' cohort will have worked their way through the system.

This paper evolved from a collaborative data-linking project between the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care and the Health Department of Western Australia. The three health systems that are the subjects of the paper are treated separately and the analysis does not depend on linked data. Furthermore, Western Australian hospital morbidity costs are not used in the paper but were imputed by the Department of Health and Aged Care using internal cost data. Therefore, the costs in this paper do not necessarily reflect actual hospital morbidity costs in Western Australia.

Download printable version of The Ageing Australian Population and Future Health Costs: 1996-2051 (PDF 363 KB)

For further information regarding the Occasional Papers Series, or if you are having trouble accessing any of these documents, please contact enquiries@health.gov.au

Please note that the information and data in this paper, while accurate at the time of publication, may now be out of date. Care should therefore be taken in using it.