Out of every €100 spent on health care in 2024, €41 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 37% between 2020 and 2024. Spending on COVID-19 testing and tracing and vaccinations is included in the Providers of Preventative Care category and explains the higher levels in the period 2020 to 2022. There has also been a 50% increase in spending in Hospitals and 46% 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, 2024, (% Current Health Care Expenditure) | |
| Hospitals | 41 |
| Ambulatory Health Care Provider | 21 |
| Long-Term Residential Facilities | 17 |
| Retailer of Medical Goods | 11 |
| Ancillary Health Care Provider | 1 |
| Other Providers | 9 |
| Current Health Care Expenditure By Provider (% Change between 2020 to 2024) | |
| Hospitals | 50 |
| Ambulatory Health Care Provider | 46 |
| Long-Term Residential Facilities | 27 |
| Retailers of Medical Goods | 18 |
| Ancillary Health Care Provider | 35 |
| Other Providers | 108 |
Figure 5.3 below provides a breakdown of health care expenditure by health care provider and financing source for 2024. As noted earlier in this publication, 78% of health care expenditure is funded by Government, 12% by health insurance and the remaining 10% 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. Direct payments by households is mostly seen in long-term residential facilities, ambulatory health care providers and retailers of medical goods. Only 1% of hospital provided care was paid directly by households. Voluntary payment schemes accounted for a small percentage (4%) of payments to long-term residential care facilities compared to 16% that was funded by households.
| HF.1 - Government and Compulsory | HF.2 - Voluntary Health Care Payment Schemes | HF.3 - Household Out-of-Pocket Payments | |
| Hospitals | 80.552931650251 | 18.4677424499253 | 0.979325899823737 |
| Long-Term Residential Facilities | 80.1720273088732 | 4.06040491118313 | 15.7675677799437 |
| Ambulatory Health Care Provider | 72.4677224736612 | 6.34554402506682 | 21.186733501272 |
| Ancillary Health Care Provider | 74.8668375555487 | 17.0147712110016 | 8.11839123344977 |
| Retailer of Medical Goods | 73.8614779822781 | 0 | 26.1385220177219 |
| Providers of Preventative Care | 88.3844143478668 | 11.6155856521332 | 0 |
| Providers of Health Care Administration and Financing | 42.5552965022448 | 57.4447034977552 | 0 |
| Rest of the Economy | 87.0635466475014 | 12.5378003930459 | 0.398652959452688 |
| Rest of the World | 69.4832599790939 | 30.5167400209061 | 0 |
| Provider n.e.c. | 95.4390889064584 | 4.56091109354165 | 0 |
| All Health Care Providers | 77.7315214887839 | 11.6723752412184 | 10.5961032699977 |
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