Health spending set to outpace GDP growth to 2030, says OECD

Health expenditure will outpace GDP growth over the next 15 years in almost every OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) country, according to new OECD forecasts. Health spending per capita will grow at an average annual rate of 2.7% across the OECD and will reach 10.2% of GDP by 2030, up from 8.8% in 2018, according to a new OECD report.

Health at a Glance 2019: OECD Indicators says that the USA spent the most on health care in 2018, equivalent to 16.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), above Switzerland, the next highest spending country, at 12.2%.  Germany, France, Sweden and Japan all spent close to 11% of GDP, while a few countries spent less than 6% of their GDP on health care, including Mexico, Latvia, Luxembourg, and Turkey at 4.2%.

Health at a Glance outlines areas where spending could be more effective: