1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2008  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 07/02/2008   
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Contents >> Health

Image: HealthHEALTH

The Australian health system has a diversity of arrangements for planning, funding, delivering and regulating health services, with a mix of private and public sector involvement.

The Australian Government, through the Health and Ageing portfolio, has significant financial and policy responsibility for health services, including hospitals, public health and mental health, while the state and territory governments are largely responsible for the direct provision of such services. Local governments and non-government organisations are also involved in the direct provision of health services. Private, non-salaried practitioners provide most medical, dental and allied health care. Two major national subsidy schemes - Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme - are funded by the Australian Government to cover all Australian citizens and permanent residents. The schemes are discussed in Health care delivery and financing. In 2005-06 total expenditure on health as a proportion of Australia's gross domestic product was 9.0%.

The chapter contains two articles. The first, Overweight and obesity in adults, examines the changes in the proportion of people who are overweight or obese between 1995 and 2004-05 and the characteristics of those people. The article Diabetes mellitus discusses the self-reported prevalence of diabetes between 1995 and 2004-05 and the characteristics of people with diabetes.







This section contains the following subsection :
      National health information
      How Australians rate their health
      Health status
      Disability status
      Health risk behaviours
      Overweight and obesity in adults (Article)
      Chronic disease
      Diabetes mellitus (Article)
      Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians
      Communicable disease
      Health care delivery and financing
      Health Bibliography

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