Call to close gap on Indigenous health funding

The public and private health sector spends $4.4bn less than needed on the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, according to an Equity Economics report.

Closing the Gap co-chair Pat Turner. Picture: Jamila Toderas

The public and private health sector spends $4.4bn less than needed on the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, according to an Equity Economics report that takes into account the much higher burden of disease among Indigenous Australians.

The assessment of health spending commissioned by the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation finds the federal, state and territory governments – and the private sector – collectively spend an average $2560 more per year per person on the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians than on non-Indigenous Australians.

The report found current health spending for non-Indigenous Australians was $7365 per person per year. For Indigenous Australians it was $9925.

However the spending gap was based on evidence about the range and prevalence of life-shortening diseases and disabilities among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared to non-Indigenous people.

The prevalence of disease among Indigenous Australians was 2.023 times higher. “If Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are to receive the same level of services per case of disease for treating their diseases as the general population, 2.023 times the level of services and expenditure needs to be provided per Indigenous person,” the report states.

The report found that in order for Indigenous Australians to receive the same level of care relative to their disease burden, additional health expenditure of $5042 per year per Indigenous Australian was necessary.

While the report estimates the overall health spending gap is $4.4bn, the gap in commonwealth government health expenditure in 2019-20 was estimated at $2.6bn. The remaining $1.8bn largely reflected lower private health expenditure, according to Equity Economics. 

NACCHO, which represents Aboriginal medical services across Australia, wants the report to highlight some of the obstacles to improving the health and life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The organisation’s chief executive, Pat Turner, was due to release the report on Tuesday, four days after she led a meeting of peak Indigenous organisations to discuss progress towards reduced Indigenous disadvantage under the new Closing the Gap agreement.

“It is no wonder that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to live lives eight to nine years shorter than other Australians. It is no wonder that our children are 55 times more likely to die of rheumatic heart disease than non-Aboriginal children,” Ms Turner said.

 “The commonwealth has had the opportunity to fix its share of the funding gap in three big-spending budgets focused on stimulus measures during the pandemic. If it had invested in our sector, it could have delivered, at the same time, financial stimulus to the 550 local economies where our services are located.”

Ms Turner is also co-chair of the Closing the Gap agreement that commits the commonwealth, state and territory governments to work for better health, education, employment rates and wellbeing for Indigenous Australians. The governments have agreed to work towards each target in partnerships with Aboriginal groups. A key element of the 10-year agreement is that Aboriginal community-controlled organisations will begin to do the work and deliver services that non-Indigenous organisations and government departments have done in the past.

Ms Turner said the coalition of peak Indigenous organisations that helped write the new agreement would seek an early meeting with whoever win the election to seek a recommitment to the Closing the Gap targets.

“We do not want to lose the progress that has been made to change the way that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people work with governments in partnership and with shared decision making,” Ms Turner said.