System of Health Accounts 2024

What is the purpose of the health care being consumed?

In 2024 more than half (59%) of all health expenditure related to curative and rehabilitative care; this mainly covers in-patient and out-patient care. The next largest category, 22% of all health expenditure, was long-term care. See Figure 6.1. Table 6.1 includes more details and shows that in-patient services were the largest component of both long-term care and curative/rehabilitative care.

There has been increased spending across all areas of curative and rehabilitative care, particularly in day care which saw a 76% increase in expenditure since 2020. Spending on long-term care has increased by 35% since 2020. There was increased spending in preventative care between 2020 and 2022 due to measures implemented to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and this has decreased slightly in more recent years. There was a lower rate of growth in medical goods and pharmaceuticals (19%). See Figure 6.2.

How are health care services funded?

Figure 6.3 below provides a breakdown of health care expenditure by health care function and financing source for 2023. As noted earlier in this release, 78% of health care expenditure was funded by Government in 2024, with 12% by health insurance and the remaining 10% by household out-of-pocket payments. The differences from the total financing scheme split show that there is very little spending on long term care by private health insurance companies. As expected, there is no spending on administration by households.

Most spending on long-term care is by government sources. In 2024, 85% of the expenditure was by government sources, 12% of long-term care was paid directly by households with the remaining 3% paid for by voluntary schemes - in the case of long term care these schemes will be mostly non-profit organisations.

How are the health care services distributed across provider type?

Figure 6.4 contains details of health care services by health care providers. Most of the information is as expected: the majority of medical goods are provided by pharmacies and retailers; and nearly all administration functions are provided by the providers of the service. About one-third of curative/rehabilitative care is provided by providers of out-patient care. Two-thirds (65%) of long-term care is provided within long-term residential facilities. The rest is provided by out-patient care (13%) or the rest of the economy or home based care (20%).