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Expenditure by Providers of Health Care

Expenditure by Providers of Health Care

Online ISSN: 2009-8812
CSO statistical release, , 11am

Who is delivering the health care goods and services?

Out of every €100 spent on health care in 2021, €37 was spent in hospitals and €21 in out-patient health care providers, mainly GPs and dentists. A further €17 was spent in long-term residential facilities, such as nursing homes and residential disability services, and €11 in retailers of medical goods (mainly pharmacies). See Figure 5.1.

Health expenditure rose by 35% between 2017 and 2021. Spending on COVID-19 testing and tracing and vaccinations is included in the Providers of Preventative Care category explains the large increases in 2020 and 2021. There has also been a 35% increase in spending in Hospitals and 43% for Ambulatory Health Care Provider. See Table 5.1.

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)
Hospitals36.9897102924726
Ambulatory Health Care Provider20.797722841623
Long-Term Residential Facilities16.5742686917889
Retailer of Medical Goods11.5280788541091
Ancillary Health Care Provider1.28367078145949
Other Providers12.8265485385469
Current Health Care Expenditure By Provider (% Change between 2017 to 2021)
Hospitals34.6060564467548
Ambulatory Health Care Provider43.0665536896697
Long-Term Residential Facilities23.135282515248
Retailers of Medical Goods13.7919702130092
Ancillary Health Care Provider31.1633976291692
Other Providers70.7101331001666
Table 5.1: Current Health Care Expenditure by Provider, 2017 to 2021

How are the health care providers funded?

Figure 5.3 below provides a breakdown of health care expenditure by health care provider and financing source for 2021. As noted earlier in this publication, 77% of health care expenditure is funded by Government, 12% by health insurance and the remaining 11% by household out-of-pocket payments - this profile of total spending is included as the bottom bar of the graph and can be used as a reference point to compare across providers.

Differences from the overall pattern were observed in the expenditure by providers of healthcare system administration and financing - none of which was provided by households. Only 1% of hospital provided care was paid directly by households, however direct payments by households accounted for 23% of the expenditure in pharmacies and retailers of medical goods.  Voluntary payment schemes accounted for a small percentage (2%) of payments to long-term residential care facilities compared to 18% that was funded by households.

HF.1 - Government and CompulsoryHF.2 - Voluntary Health Care Payment SchemesHF.3 - Household Out-of-Pocket Payments
Hospitals80.28390935456661.5063210866221918.2097695588112
Long-Term Residential Facilities80.682705311839816.45786557828612.85942910987412
Ambulatory Health Care Provider76.411795872342218.52926895924495.05893516841283
Ancillary Health Care Provider74.259419067450614.883654969588710.8569259629607
Retailer of Medical Goods76.793628011345423.20637198865460
Providers of Preventative Care92.465041428992807.53495857100723
Providers of Health Care Administration and Financing37.3503142637619062.6496857362381
Rest of the Economy90.74067018616870.4386616508812518.82066816295007
Rest of the World78.2020416173619021.7979583826381
Provider n.e.c.96.414160202188803.58583979781117
All Health Care Providers78.918941645343410.398135475761310.6829228788953
Table 5.2: Current Health Care Expenditure by Health Care Provider and Health Care Financing Scheme, 2021