Links

The following figures show that there is a lack of government support for deaf and hearing impaired people in Australia.

Comparison with National Health Priorities

Figure 1 provides a comparison of the prevalence of hearing loss with the national health priority areas, showing it to be more prevalent than all national health priorities except musculoskeletal conditions.

Figure 1: Prevalence, Hearing Loss and National Health Priorities

Health System Expenditure Comparisons

Figure 2 compares allocated health expenditure for hearing health with the national health priority areas. The year 2000-01 was used as the year of comparison as this provides the most recent data available for all disease areas. Comparatively, health expenditure on hearing loss is less than 1% of the total expenditure on the national health priority areas, and only 0.35% of total allocated recurrent health expenditure in Australia. Using the prevalence of diseases reported in AIHW for 2001 and allocated recurrent health expenditures from AIHW for 2000-01 it can be seen that, compared to the then expenditure of $62 per person with hearing loss per annum.

• an average of $10,904 is spent per person with cancer and an average of $2,064 is spent per person with a mental illness; and
  

• this implies that less than 5% of the average per capita expenditure on the national health priorities is spent on hearing loss.
  

Figure 2: Hearing Loss, Health Expenditure Compared to National Health Priorities

Source of information: Listen Hear! The Economic Impact and Cost of Hearing Loss in Australia.

Source of figures: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare