Intergenerational Report Spending on Health, Aged Care and Age Pensions In the future, three key social areas of government spending are most likely to have escalating growth. These are health, aged care and age pensions.
Spending on health, aged care and age pensions is likely to grow because the population is ageing and older people are the biggest users of the health system.			spending on health, aged care and age pensions to grow
In addition, around three-quarters of the projected growth in health spending over the next four decades reflects the expected use of newer, high cost technologies.			technological advances, not population ageing, are the main reason for more health spending
Lower birth rates are likely to result in a reduced rate of growth in government spending on education and payments to families. This is because the number of people aged under 18 is expected to fall slightly over the next 40 years.			population ageing will not increase spending in all areas
Spending in other areas such as the environment and defence is less sensitive to population change. This spending is assumed to remain constant as a proportion of GDP.
Commonwealth Spending on Health and Aged Care Could Double from 2002 to 2042