More than 300 billion euros health costs

Every tenth Euro in Germany for health

05/04/2013

As reported by the Federal Statistical Office on the occasion of World Health Day, health expenditure in Germany has continued to rise. Almost 300 billion euros were invested in 2011 in health. As expected, most of the expenditure was spent on statutory health insurance. But also the private health insurance companies as well as the private households increased again.

Health expenditure increased by 1.9 percent
The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) in Wiesbaden published the current calculation of health expenditure for 2011 on Thursday. According to this, expenditures increased by 1.9 percent compared to the previous year. Thus, in 2011, 294 billion euros were spent on health in Germany. This corresponds to around 3,590 euros per capita. However, given the relatively strong economic growth of the past two years and a slowdown in health spending growth, the share of expenditure in gross domestic product (GDP) fell slightly, at 11.3 per cent, according to Destatis. In 2010, it was still 11.5 percent.

As before, most of the expenditure (168.5 billion euros) is accounted for by the statutory health insurance (SHI). Their share rose by 1.6 percent compared to the previous year. However, in terms of total costs, the SHI expenditures (57 percent) have fallen slightly. „27.7 billion euros or nine percent of the health¬accounted for private health insurance. Their spending rose the most, at plus 0.9 billion euros or 3.5 percent“, says in a press release from Destatis. The proportion of private households and non-profit institutions also increased by 2.9 per cent compared to the previous year and stood at 14 per cent (40.1 billion euros in total)..

Highest spending on goods and services at outpatient facilities
In terms of spending on healthcare goods and services, outpatient facilities remain at the top of the list, at € 144.1 billion (49 percent). This results in a below-average growth of 1.4 percent. According to Destatis, this development is linked to the significant decline in pharmacy spending of around 2.7 percent (2011: € 39.8 billion), due to measures taken under the Act to Reorganize the Medicines Market in Statutory Health Insurance were taken. Even before the pharmacies, the medical practices with 44.4 billion euros (2.2 percent increase) had the highest proportion of expenditure. Significant was above all the increase in expenditures at the outpatient care facilities with 5.5 percent and the surgeries with other medical services such as physiotherapy or speech therapy with 5.1 percent compared to the previous year.

Health industry threatens shortage of skilled workers
„The shortage of skilled labor is increasingly threatening to become a brake on the growth of the health economy, "said Deputy Chief Executive of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), Achim Dercks, to the „New Osnabrück newspaper. "Above all, specialists in the pharmaceutical and medical technology sector as well as nurses in the health and social services are urgently needed. „84 percent of companies fear that the workforce will be overburdened due to a shortage of skilled workers. "The expert points to a recent analysis of the latest DIHK labor market survey, according to which nearly 40 percent of companies in the healthcare industry do not fill vacancies for two months or more.

Amongst other things, Decks named the aspect of reconciling work and family life for securing skilled labor. A good childcare infrastructure was „imperative“. The companies are required and could „with flexible working time models and company-supported care offers“ but also workplace health promotion, Dercks explained. (Sb)