Self-reported health ranked between excellent and poor on a 5-point scale
Private health insurance
Any expenditure on private health insurance coverage in the last year
Health service usage
Medical: number of services per person per year Pharmaceutical: number of scripts per persons per year Hospital: number of hospital admissions per person per year, and number of bed days per hospital admission
Health service costs
Medical: costs per MBS service Pharmaceutical: cost per PBS script Hospital: cost per hospital bed day
MBS refers to the medical benefits scheme which provides government funding for medical practitioner services, optometry, diagnostic imaging, and pathology tests. PBS refers to the pharmaceutical benefits scheme which provides government subsidy to achieve “affordable access to necessary and cost-effective medicines” [7].