UK Drug Spending Lags OECD Nations

Total annual spending on health care in the UK is expected to reach L47.26 billion ($73.72 billion) by the end of 1995, of which L41.51 billion will be accounted for by the National Health Service, according to estimates in the annual Compendium of Health Statistics published by the UK industry-backed Office of Health Economics.

Total national health costs in the UK for 1994 are put by the OHE at L45.44 billion, with the NHS accounting for L39.96 billion of this. Health care represented 6.9% of the UK's Gross Domestic Product figure in 1994, a percentage which is forecast to fall slightly to 6.8% this year.

The OHE notes that the UK is still far behind the average for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations, which spent an average of 10.2% of GDP on health care in 1994, and are expected to spend 10.4% in 1995. A comparison of the GDP spent on health care in 21 industrialized nations is easily dominated by the USA, at 15% in 1994 and forecast to rise to 15.7% this year. Those spending less than the UK last year were Spain on 6.7%, Denmark on 6.4%, Greece on 5.4% and Portugal on 5.8%. Japan and Ireland were alongside the UK on 6.9%.