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falling sharply in 2010, health spending remained flat across OECD
countries in 2011 as the economic crisis continued to have an impact,
particularly in those European countries hardest hit by the crisis, according to
OECD Health Data 2013.
While
health spending grew on average by close to 5% year-on-year from 2000 to 2009,
this has since been followed by a sluggish growth of around 0.5% in 2010 and
2011. Current expenditure on health (i.e., excluding capital expenditure) grew
by 0.7% in both years. Preliminary figures for some countries suggest a
continuation of this trend in 2012.
The
drop has been primarily driven by a collapse in the growth of government health
spending since 2009 – recording close to zero growth in both years on average.
Private health spending also slowed down in many countries in 2010 and 2011 as
household incomes remained flat or decreased, although the reduction was more
limited.
In
Greece, overall health spending dropped by 11% both in 2010 and 2011 after a
yearly growth rate of more than 5% on average between 2000 and 2009. These
reductions were mainly driven by deep cuts in government spending. Ireland,
Iceland and Spain also experienced two consecutive years of negative growth in
health spending. Some countries, such as Estonia and the Czech Republic, saw
severe falls in spending in 2010 followed by a modest rebound in 2011. Other
countries, including Portugal and Italy, may have delayed cuts in 2010, but then
reduced public health spending in 2011. In Portugal, public spending dropped by
8% in 2011 after remaining stable between 2009 and 2010. Only two OECD countries
– Israel and Japan – have seen an acceleration in health spending since 2009
compared with the period before.
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