In the last years, public sector health
expenditure accounted on average for 74% of total
health expenditure and 15% of the total
government expenditure.
Between 2006 and 2016, the public health
expenditure in PPP$ per capita increased on
average to almost +50% in the EU. The countries
that registered the most significant increases are
Lithuania (+105%), Poland (+105%) and Estonia
(+117%), whereas those that registered a minor
increase were Luxembourg (+15%), Portugal (+19%)
and Italy (+20%). Greece was the only country
where this indicator decreased (–15%) (Chart 1).
Chart 2 shows the trend over the past ten years
concerning the share of government expenditure
in health. It presents the aggregated data
concerning the EU, and the figures of the three
countries having the highest and the lowest
values in the year 2017, Switzerland included.
In 2017, the percentage of government
expenditure devoted to health on total health
expenditure ranged from 7% in Cyprus to 20% in
Ireland. In Switzerland, this indicator was 6.4%.
The trends illustrated in Chart 2 are generally
positive between 2007 and 2017 with an average
yearly increase of percentage of government
outlays devoted to health by 0.08 p.p. Yet, from
2009 to 2010, this way of development slackened
off in many countries, the reasons including the
effects of the financial crisis or the shift of
interest and priorities to other sectors.
Out-of-pocket payments show the direct
burden of medical costs that households bear at
the time of service use. Out-of-pocket payments
play an important role in every health care
system.
In 2016, the private contribution to healthcare
spending was around 20% in the EU, ranging
from 10% in France to 45% in Latvia. The other
lowest values were registered in Luxembourg
(11%), the Netherlands (11%) and Slovenia (12%),
while the other highest values were registered in
Hungary (30%), Lithuania (32%) and Greece (30%).
It is worth noting that Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania
and Greece are among the countries with the
CHART 1
Total current health expenditure in PPP$ per
capita, share of public and private: Year 2017
Public share of current health expenditure
Private share of current health expenditure
Luxembourg 82% Switzerland 63% Germany 85% Sweden 84% The Netherlands 81% Denmark 84% France 83% 17%
Austria 74% 26%
Ireland 73% Belgium 79% United Kingdom 79% Finland 74% Italy 74% Spain 71% Czech Republic 82% 18% Slovenia 73% 27% Portugal 67% Slovak Republic 81% Estonia 76% Greece 61% 39% Hungary 67% 33% Poland 69% 31% Lithuania 67% 33% Latvia 55%
0
18%
37%
15%
16%
19%
16%
27%
21%
21%
26%
26%
29%
33%
19%
24%
45%
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
CHART 2
Total health expenditure as percentage of total general government expenditure in the
EU and some illustrative countries: Trend 2007–2017
Ireland
United
Kingdom
The
Netherlands
EU 28
Hungary
Latvia
Cyprus
23
21
19
17
15
13
11
9
7
5
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
4
HHE 2019 | hospitalhealthcare.com
2014
2015
2016
2017