Medicare spending growth to slow: report

Growth in spending on the Medicare Benefits Schedule is expected to slow considerably over the next decade, as the government cuts back on what it pays for services.

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) projects a 1.4 per cent annual rise over the next decade to $36.6 billion by 2025-16, compared to the 2.3 per cent growth a year over the past two decades.

The fall is mostly driven by the decline in the benefit paid by the government for each service accessed, the PBO said in a report released on Wednesday.