Hospitals are by far the most expensive part of our health system, soaking up more than a third of the €21.1bn expenditure on health in 2017, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show. The figures also show that administration of the health system, public and private, amounted to €625m, 3% of total health expenditure. Pharmaceuticals accounted for 13% of expenditure on health in 2017. The research says health expenditure in Ireland expressed as a percentage of GDP exceeded the OECD average in 2008 and remained consistently above the average until 2015. “Similarly, health spending as a percentage of GDP declined sharply in 2015, despite an increase in health spending, as Irish GDP increased by 26%.” Ireland’s 2017 health expenditure represents 7.2% of GDP, down from 7.4% in 2016.

Source: Irish Examiner June 20, 2019 17:02 UTC