The 2018-19 Budget again confirmed the massive growth in forecast spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Government spending on the NDIS passed the around $6 billion annual spend on the private health insurance rebate this year, 2017-18, having risen from just over $1 billion in 2015-16.
While spending on the rebate will remain at just over $6 billion for the years to 2020-21, with the program actually dropping further out of the federal government's top-20 by spending, the NDIS will surge to almost $24 billion.
In 2018-19, spending on the NDIS is budgeted to surge to $16.6 billion - it will go from less than government spending on the rebate to more than twice its size in one year.
Over the forward estimates to 2021-22, spending on the NDIS will pass the rebate and become almost four times its size, taking its annual cost to roughly equivalent to the federal government's annual spending on public hospitals and rapidly approaching the $28 billion annual cost of Medicare.
Since last year's Budget, budgeted spending on the NDIS over the two years 2018-19 and 2019-20 has risen from $35.4 billion to $37.4 billion - a $2 billion increase.