Health Care Costs

Synonyms

Health care expenditures; Expenditures on health care

Definition

Health care costs are the sum of both public and private expenditures spent on health care services in a given country at a given time. The variation in health care costs between countries is substantial. The main drivers of health care costs are non‐demographic factors such as national income, relative prices, and technology.

Basic Characteristics

Health Care Costs: International Comparisons

From a macroeconomic point of view, the sum of health care costs is the sum of both public (taxes, social insurance) and private (private insurance, out-of-pocket payments) expenditures spent on health care services in a given country at a given time. The Organizations for Economic Co‐Operation and Development (OECD) has developed a methodology to standardize health care expenditures and to make them comparable across member countries (OECD 2005). Health care costs are either measured per capita