Health Care Expenditure Growth and Its Driver

Running Head: HEALTH CARE EXPENDITURE GROWTH AND ITS DRIVER
HEALTH CARE EXPENDITURE GROWTH AND ITS DRIVER
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HEALTH CARE EXPENDITURE GROWTH AND ITS DRIVER1
Introduction:
Our health is greatly affected by the way we live, the food we have and our lifestyle. In
today’s lifestyle, there are many diseases which are prevailing in our living system which we are
not aware of. One of the major cause of developing such diseases is our lifestyle and those are
known as lifestyle diseases. This prevails due to consumption of alcohol, drugs, smoking,
substance abuse, unhealthy eating which consists of fast food along with lack in physical
activities. The diseases which has a negative effect on our lifestyle are obesity, stroke, heart
diseases and type II diabetes. Enhanced lifestyle has lead to the increase in finances as well as
lifestyle diseases. The diseases requires treatment which is met by the finances and has made a
progress in health care expenditure (Aitken et al. 2016). The main reason for health care
expenditure is the lack of awareness in health care also. Most of the population are unaware of
the effects of unhealthy lifestyle or substance abuse thus leading to more hospital visits and more
expenditure in pharmaceuticals. The socio economic condition of the population also affects the
kind of disease thus contributing to hospital expenditures. Technology has also shown to be a
factor in rise of cumulative spending on health. As we can say with growing days technology is
playing a great role in modulating a process, in hospitals and health sector also many
administrative tasks are done with the use of technology like documentation. So therefore it can
be said that technology too play a minor role in increasing the health expenditures.
Discussion:
Unhealthy lifestyle is responsible for growth in health care expenditure
There are many factors which influences the susceptibility of many diseases that mainly
includes lifestyle and diet. Tobacco smoking, drug and substance abuse, drinking of alcohol in

HEALTH CARE EXPENDITURE GROWTH AND ITS DRIVER2
modern day along with lack of exercise increases the risk of developing chronic diseases at a
younger age. This also leads to the increase in the expense for treatment of these diseases which
hikes the health care expenditure costs. In Australia, studies revealed that the population of old
people are increasing day by day. This is because of the ability of the healthcare systems to
diagnose the diseases and deliver a healthy life to the ailing. This increases the cost of health care
facilities. Consumption of red meat, dairy products, tobacco, vegetable oils, sugary foods,
carbonated drinks, alcoholic beverages aided with sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of
developing obesity. Obesity leads to increased chances of development of thyroid misbalances
which is a precursor to diabetes. This dietary change has lead to the increase in rates of different
types of cancers. Findings reveals that population of developing countries are at a lower risk of
developing cancers as compared to western countries as their sugar intake is less and diet is low
in fat. According to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s Australia’s Health 2016 report,
they live a longer life but suffering with chronic ailments. A single cause for expenditure growth
in field of health care is contracting coronary heart disease along with dementia, stroke, lung
cancer due to smoking and pulmonary diseases (Australian health report card 2019). In Australia,
cancer is the biggest cause of illness rather than cardiovascular diseases. The treatment of cancer
is also economically higher. More than half of the Australian population suffer from at least one
of the chronic diseases as mentioned in the figure. A quarter of the population also suffer from a
combination of two or more chronic diseases. The maximum frequency of chronic disease
combination is arthritis combined with cardiovascular diseases in old aged people.

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Figure 1: Proportion of burden attributable to the top five risk factors
Source: ("Proportion Of The Burden Attributable To The Top Five Risk Factors" 2019)
The disease burden in Australia could have been prevented by reducing certain risk
factors like drinking, smoking, gaining of excess weight, physical inactiveness and increased
blood pressure. On contrary, unhealthy lifestyle is not the only cause for developing diseases.
Adults may develop diseases due to many behavioral factors like poor social acceptance,