Health spending continues to stagnate, says OECD

Health spending has remained flat in the 34 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), it said today. After falling sharply in 2010, the economic crisis has continued to have an impact on spending, particularly in European countries hit hardest by the crash, according to the OECD Health Data 2013.

The report says while health spending grew on average by close to 5% year-on-year from 2000 to 2009, this has been followed by a slow growth of around 0.5% in 2010 and 2011. Current expenditure on health grew by 0.7% in both years with preliminary figures for some countries suggesting a continuation of this trend in 2012.

The OECD report says 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. Only two OECD countries, Israel and Japan, saw an acceleration in health spending since 2009 compared with the period before.