Report: Slow growth in health spending but shrinks in Europe

Reductions in health spending were felt across Europe in 2013, according to OECD Health Statistics 2015.

Health spending continued to shrink in Greece, Italy and Portugal and most countries in the European Union reported real per capita health spending below the levels of 2009. In contrast, outside of Europe, health spending has been growing at around 2.5% per year since 2010.

Health spending growth has generally stayed in line with economic growth, so health expenditure as a share of GDP remained stable relative to 2012. This is in contrast to the years leading up to the economic crisis, when health spending strongly outpaced the rest of the economy. In 2013, health spending as a share of GDP was 8.9%, ranking from as low as 5.1% in Turkey to 16.4% in the USA.