Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2019 Aug 22;16(17):3043.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph16173043.

Underlying Differences in Health Spending Within the World Health Organisation Europe Region-Comparing EU15, EU Post-2004, CIS, EU Candidate, and CARINFONET Countries

Mihajlo Jakovljevic  1   2 , Paula Odete Fernandes  3 , João Paulo Teixeira  4 , Nemanja Rancic  5 , Yuriy Timofeyev  6 , Vladimir Reshetnikov  7
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Underlying Differences in Health Spending Within the World Health Organisation Europe Region-Comparing EU15, EU Post-2004, CIS, EU Candidate, and CARINFONET Countries

Mihajlo Jakovljevic et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This study examined the differences in health spending within the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe region by comparing the EU15, the EU post-2004, CIS, EU Candidate and CARINFONET countries. The WHO European Region (53 countries) has been divided into the following sub-groups: EU15, EU post-2004, CIS, EU Candidate countries and CARINFONET countries. The study period, based on the availability of WHO Global Health expenditure data, was 1995 to 2014. EU15 countries have exhibited the strongest growth in total health spending both in nominal and purchasing power parity terms. The dynamics of CIS members' private sector expenditure growth as a percentage of GDP change has exceeded that of other groups. Private sector expenditure on health as a percentage of total government expenditure, has steadily the highest percentage point share among CARINFONET countries. Furthermore, private households' out-of-pocket payments on health as a percentage of total health expenditure, has been dominated by Central Asian republics for most of the period, although, for the period 2010 to 2014, the latter have tended to converge with those of CIS countries. Western EU15 nations have shown a serious growth of health expenditure far exceeding their pace of real economic growth in the long run. There is concerning growth of private health spending among the CIS and CARINFONET nations. It reflects growing citizen vulnerability in terms of questionable affordability of healthcare. Health care investment capability has grown most substantially in the Russian Federation, Turkey and Poland being the classical examples of emerging markets.

Keywords: Europe; WHO; health economics; private health expenditure; public health expenditure.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Total health expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, the World Health Organization estimates.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Total health expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Public and private sector expenditure on health as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the World Health Organization estimates.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Public and private sector expenditure on health as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the World Health Organization estimates.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Total health expenditure, purchasing power parity (USD) per capita, the World Health Organisation estimates. Note:
Figure 6
Figure 6
Public health expenditure, purchasing power parity (USD) per capita, the World Health Organisation estimates.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Public sector expenditure on health as a percentage of total health expenditure, the World Health Organisation estimates.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Private sector expenditure on health as a percentage of total health expenditure, the World Health Organisation estimates.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Private households’ out-of-pocket payments on health as a percentage of total health expenditure, the World Health Organisation estimates.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kuznets S., Friedman M. Incomes from Independent Professional Practice. NBER; Berkshire, UK: 1939. Incomes from Independent Professional Practice, 1929–1936.
    1. Mushkin S.J. Toward a definition of health economics. Public Health Rep. 1958;73:785–794. doi: 10.2307/4590242. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jakovljevic M.B., Ogura S. Health economics at the crossroads of centuries—From the past to the future. Front. Public Health. 2016;4:115. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2016.00115. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Getzen T.E. Medical care price indexes: Theory, construction & empirical analysis of the US series 1927–1990. Adv. Health Econ. Health Serv. Res. 1992;13:83–128. - PubMed
    1. Smith S., Newhouse J.P., Freeland M.S. Income, insurance, and technology: Why does health spending outpace economic growth? Health Aff. 2009;28:1276–1284. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.28.5.1276. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources