finances hospital care. The funds allocated to
providers of long-term care, ancillary services,
ambulatory care, preventive care, as well as to
retailers and other providers of medical goods,
are excluded from this computation.
In 2015, current hospital expenditure
represented approximately 38.2% of total current
health expenditure, ranging from 29.2% and
31.5% in Germany and Luxembourg, respectively,
to 45.4% and 47.2% in Italy and Estonia (Chart
4). In all countries, even if a part of the total
health expenditure is always funded by private
insurances and out-of-pocket payments,
almost the entire amount of inpatient health
expenditure is publicly financed. The total
expenditure on inpatient care (PPP$ per capita)
in the EU follows, on average, a growing positive
trend. The exception is Greece, where available
data show that this indicator varies negatively
(-23.0%).
Pharmaceutical expenditure includes the
consumption of prescribed medicines, over-the-
counter and other medical non-durable goods.
One of the indicators taken into consideration for
2015 was expenditure on pharmaceuticals and
other medical non-durable goods, as percentage
of current health expenditure. The countries
that registered the lowest rates of this indicator
are Denmark (6.8%), the Netherlands (7.9%),
Luxembourg (8.6%) and Sweden (9.9%) while the
highest one were Poland (21.0%), Greece (25.9%),
Latvia (26.8%), Slovakia (26.9%), and Hungary
(29.2%).
Between 2000 and 2015, the percentage of
pharmaceutical expenditure on total current
health expenditure has generally declined in
all of Europe. In 2015, the total pharmaceutical
expenditure was between 342 PPP$ and 343 PPP$
per capita in Denmark and Estonia, respectively,
and 766 PPP$ per capita in Germany. At least half
of it was held by the public sector in all countries
except Slovenia (49.5%), Denmark (43.7%), Latvia
(35.0%) and Poland (34.1%). The highest values in
2015 were in Germany (82.9%), Luxembourg (80.2%),
Ireland (74.6%), France (70.9%) and Slovakia (70.7%).
chart 4
Current hospitals expenditure as percentage of
total current health expenditure, in PPP$ per
capita: Year 2015
Current hospitals expenditure as % of total current health expenditure
Total current health expenditure, PPP$ per capita
Switzerland 35%
Luxembourg 31%
Germany 29%
Netherlands 38%
Ireland 35%
Sweden 38%
Austria 39%
Denmark 44%
Belgium 33%
France 40%
United Kingdom 42%
Finland 35%
Italy 45%
Spain 41%
Slovenia 41%
Portugal 42%
Czech Republic 41%
Greece 42%
Slovak Republic 34%
Hungry 36%
Estonia 47%
Poland 36%
Lativa
32%
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
chart 5
Comparison between the variation in the total and public pharmaceutical expenditure:
Years 2000–2015
300
Estonia
250
Ireland
200
Latvia
Slovakia
150
Germany
Slovakia
Finland
100
Poland
50
United Kingdom
-50
0 0
Hungary
Italy
Netherlands
Austria
Belgium
Greece
France
Luxembourg
Spain
Czech Republic
Portugal
Sweden
Slovenia
50
100
Total pharmaceutical expenditure, PPP$ per capita: Variation 2000-2015
16
HHE 2018 | hospitalhealthcare.com
150
200
250