Vol. 486 No. 1
599 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Health and Children the total financial allocation for health in 1998; the percentage of GNP this figure represents; and if he will give comparative figures for other EU or OECD countries. [1974/98]
The gross provision for the Health and Children Estimate after the Minister for Finance's announcements on budget day is £3,111 million. This figure includes £147 million for the Capital Programme and £100 million for compensation payments to be made under the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Act, 1997. The total excluding the compensation payments represents an estimated 6.7 per cent of GNP.
The OECD publishes figures comparing the level of public expenditure on health as a percentage of GDP. The latest figures available are for 1996. The following table shows the comparison with the other EU countries. The OECD in its economic survey of Ireland in 1997 compiled a special report on the health services. The report indicated that within Europe, the average share of GNP devoted by Ireland to public health spending was only slightly below average, though the absolute level of per capita spending was also lower than the European average. It noted that there had been major increases in expenditure on community care services and that there had been significant improvements in hospital productivity in recent years. The report concluded that the Irish health system based on a mixture of public and private care resulted in good provision of health care at relatively low cost to the taxpayer.
|
Countries |
Health Expenditure as a % of GDP |
|
Austria |
5.9 |
|
Belgium |
6.9 |
|
Denmark |
5.1 |
|
Finland |
5.6 |
|
France |
7.8 |
|
Germany |
8.2 |
|
Greece |
4.9 |
|
Ireland |
6.0 |
|
Italy |
5.3 |
|
Luxembourg* |
6.5 |
|
Netherlands |
6.6 |
|
Portugal |
4.9 |
|
Spain* |
6.0 |
|
Sweden* |
5.9 |
|
United Kingdom |
5.8 |
