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Expenditure by Providers of Health Care

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Who is delivering the health care goods and services? 

Out of every €100 spent on health care in 2018, €37 was spent in hospitals and €20 in out-patient health care providers, mainly GPs and dentists. A further €18 was spent in long-term residential facilities, such as nursing homes and residential disability services, and €13 in retailers of medical goods (mainly pharmacies), (see Figure 3.1).

Health expenditure rose by 19% between 2014 and 2018. Spending in hospitals had the highest increase of 25% over this time period, compared with rises of 14% in long-term residential facilities and 12% for retailers of medical goods, (see Figure 2.2).

Health care providers include all the organisations and individuals who deliver health care goods and services as their primary activity. Also included are those who deliver health care as one of a number of activities, see the Background Notes for more details.

Current Health Care Expenditure By Provider (% Current Health Care Expenditure)
Hospitals37.2
Ambulatory Health Care Provider19.9
Long-Term Residential Facilities17.7
Retailer of Medical Goods13.2
Ancillary Health Care Provider1.4
Other Providers10.7
Current Health Care Expenditure By Provider (% Change between 2014 to 2018)
Hospitals25.2944620043398
Ambulatory Health Care Provider20.8174201031519
Long-Term Residential Facilities13.6944416621467
Retailers of Medical Goods12.1720149708464
Anillary Health Care Provider16.5514105909091
Other Providers14.4722913932885
Table 3.1: Current Health Care Expenditure by Provider, 2014 to 2018

How are the health care providers funded?

Figure 3.3 below provides a breakdown of health care expenditure by health care provider and financing source for 2018. As noted earlier in this publication, 74% of health care expenditure is funded by Government in 2018, 14% by health insurance and the remaining 12% by household out-of-pocket payments - this split in total spending is on the bottom bar of the graph and can be used to highlight which providers diverge from this pattern.

Differences from the overall pattern were observed in the expenditure on providers of healthcare system administration and financing, 64% of which was provided by private health insurance companies. Only 2% of hospital provided care was paid directly by households, however direct payments by households accounted for 25% of the expenditure in pharmacies and retailers of medical goods.  Voluntary payment schemes only accounted for a small percentage (4%) of payments to long-term residential care facilities.

HF.1 - Government and CompulsoryHF.2 - Voluntary Health Care Payment SchemesHF.3 - Household Out-of-Pocket Payments
Hospitals72.430634806010225.81245029975621.75691489423361
Long-Term Residential Facilities79.24941658903753.5518382887929117.1987451221696
Ambulatory Health Care Provider71.38070701203955.3415536927021723.2777392952583
Ancillary Health Care Provider71.52235584239613.300323892511715.1773202650923
Retailer of Medical Goods75.2334427245599024.7665572754401
Providers of Preventative Care89.834695268357210.16530473164280
Providers of Health Care Administration and Financing36.110235285258663.88976471474140
Rest of the Economy85.03660952867699.805505638143795.15788483317927
Rest of the World74.214074089959625.78592591004040
Provider n.e.c.96.98117955599323.018820444006840
All Health Care Providers73.89122125824514.025451846402812.0833268953522
Table 3.2: Current Health Care Expenditure by Health Care Provider and Health Care Financing Scheme, 2018


Next Chapter >> Expenditure by Functions of Health Care