OECD publishes latest public health expenditure figures for EU member states

A majority of European countries experienced shrinking health spending in 2013, according to the OECD Health Statistics 2015 report which was published on 7 July 2015. Worst affected by the reductions in healthcare spending were Greece, Portugal and Italy. Detailed summaries of health spending patterns for Ireland and Spain are not yet available. Notes for individual OECD countries can be accessed here.

The OECD data is a reliable indication that the European economic crisis is continuing to hold down spending growth in national healthcare budgets. For most EU countries, healthcare expenditure as a share of GDP remained flat during 2013–14; an exception to this was Norway, where health expenditure as a share of GDP actually increased from 8.9% to 9.2% between 2013 and 2014. The figures also show that public spending continues to play the dominant role. However the proportion of private spending has notably increased. This trend is attributed to the fact that EU countries have been fixated on the consolidation of public finances in recent years. For example, in both Greece and Portugal public sources of funding fell significantly and now account for just 66% of health spending, well below the OECD average of public funding for healthcare which was 73% in 2013.

Another interesting dynamic that the OECD report highlights is the variation among the larger EU member states in terms of their per-capita health spending patterns. For the third year in succession, Italy experienced a decline in per-capita health spending by 3.5% in real terms in 2013. This was followed by a drop of 1.4% in 2014. In contrast, Germany's per-capita healthcare spending increased by 1.7% in real terms in 2013 and is estimated to have increased by an additional 2.5% for the year 2014.

Outlook and implications

The OECD is scheduled to release a major update on pharmaceutical expenditure in November 2015. However the latest report on the slowdown in health spending growth across Europe points to the expected decline in pharmaceutical spending in a number of EU member states and particularly the peripheral economies. The 2015 OECD report notes, that during 2009 and 2013, the Greek government's annual expenditure on pharmaceuticals declined by EUR1.8 billion. The OECD figures are based on 2013/2014 results, although it is highly likely that this overarching pattern has continued in recent years and that private expenditure on health (including rises in co-payment costs) will continue to be a feature in 2015 and beyond. The report confirms that peripheral European economics will be required in future to increase private health expenditure in order to advance their national health systems.