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Expenditure by Providers of Health Care

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Who is delivering the health care goods and services? 

Out of every €100 spent on health care in 2019, €38 was spent in hospitals and €20 in out-patient health care providers, mainly GPs and dentists. A further €18 was spent in long-term residential facilities, such as nursing homes and residential disability services, and €13 in retailers of medical goods (mainly pharmacies), (see Figure 4.1).

Health expenditure rose by 24% between 2015 and 2019. Spending in hospitals had the highest increase of 30% over this time period, compared with rises of 19% in long-term residential facilities and 13% for retailers of medical goods, (see Figure 4.2).

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 (% Current Health Care Expenditure)
Hospitals38.1843454385156
Ambulatory Health Care Provider20.0001463508984
Long-Term Residential Facilities17.4792606513227
Retailer of Medical Goods12.6631070877756
Ancillary Health Care Provider1.31400969069967
Other Providers10.3591307807881
Current Health Care Expenditure By Provider (% Change between 2015 to 2019)
Hospitals30.1650288537337
Ambulatory Health Care Provider23.894268123065
Long-Term Residential Facilities18.8778719001382
Retailers of Medical Goods13.0373292810001
Anillary Health Care Provider15.9515898757223
Other Providers24.1418893971774
Table 4.1: Current Health Care Expenditure by Provider, 2015 to 2019

How are the health care providers funded?

Figure 4.3 below provides a breakdown of health care expenditure by health care provider and financing source for 2019. As noted earlier in this publication, 74% of health care expenditure is funded by Government, 14% by health insurance and the remaining 12% by household out-of-pocket payments - this split in total spending is on the bottom bar of the graph and can be used to highlight which providers diverge from this pattern.

Differences from the overall pattern were observed in the expenditure on providers of healthcare system administration and financing, 64% of which was provided by private health insurance companies. Only 2% of hospital provided care was paid directly by households, however direct payments by households accounted for 25% of the expenditure in pharmacies and retailers of medical goods.  Voluntary payment schemes accounted for a small percentage (4%) of payments to long-term residential care facilities.

HF.1 - Government and CompulsoryHF.2 - Voluntary Health Care Payment SchemesHF.3 - Household Out-of-Pocket Payments
Hospitals72.430634806010225.81245029975621.75691489423361
Long-Term Residential Facilities79.24941658903753.5518382887929117.1987451221696
Ambulatory Health Care Provider71.38070701203955.3415536927021723.2777392952583
Ancillary Health Care Provider71.52235584239613.300323892511715.1773202650923
Retailer of Medical Goods75.2334427245599024.7665572754401
Providers of Preventative Care89.834695268357210.16530473164280
Providers of Health Care Administration and Financing36.110235285258663.88976471474140
Rest of the Economy85.03660952867699.805505638143795.15788483317927
Rest of the World74.214074089959625.78592591004040
Provider n.e.c.96.98117955599323.018820444006840
All Health Care Providers73.89122125824514.025451846402812.0833268953522
Table 4.2: Current Health Care Expenditure by Health Care Provider and Health Care Financing Scheme, 2019


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