A new study by Eurostat has revealed how much EU countries are spending on healthcare. Among the EU members, Germany and France are spending the most, while Luxembourg and Romania are spending the smallest percentage of their GDP in the sector. The Czech Republic is below the EU average, spending 7.7% of its GDP on healthcare. Photo credit: Freepik / For illustrative purposes.
Czech Rep., Dec 3 (BD) – Health has been a central topic of 2020, as Covid-19 exposed weaknesses in healthcare infrastructure and pushed debate over the topic to the foreground of society. So, how much is actually spent by European countries on healthcare and how does it vary across the EU Member States?
According to a recent study by Eurostat, the average healthcare expenditure across the EU amounted to 9.9% of a country’s GDP in 2018. Among EU Member States, Germany (11.5% of GDP), France (11.3%) and Sweden (10.9%) were the countries with the highest healthcare expenditure, and Luxembourg (5.3%) and Romania (5.6%) spent the least.
The Czech Republic’s expenditure on health care is below the EU average, with 7.7% of its GDP going towards the sector (public and private). However, it scores higher than its Visegrad neighbours in Slovakia, Poland and Hungary.
The study also evaluated healthcare expenditure per capita, relative to population size. By this measure, Denmark, Luxembourg and Sweden top the list, all spending more than EUR 5,000 per citizen. In contrast, Romania and Bulgaria spent less than EUR 600 per inhabitant. The European average is EUR 2,982. The Czech Republic is again below the European average (EUR 1,493). Nevertheless, this value is also higher than in Slovakia, Poland or Hungary, where expenditure per citizen is below EUR 1100.
