Out of pocket expenditure compared across Europe
Here we look at household out-of-pocket payments – direct payments for healthcare from a household’s primary income or savings, where the user pays at the time of purchase. The figures on this chart are displayed as a percentage share of the total current health expenditure for the countries listed.
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The figures here are taken from Eurostat, the European Union’s official statistics / data repository.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, countries in Eastern Europe like Latvia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria, show the largest percentage of out-of-pocket payments in this area, though the figure for Greece is notably high.
By comparison, countries with well established public healthcare systems like France and the Netherlands have comparatively smaller out-of-pocket spends, below 10%.
Across the board, however, there is a clear drop in the percentage compared to total health expenditure (though as health expenditure is going up, this does not mean an actual drop in the amount spent).
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