a day agoKosovo, among countries with weaker public health financing in region
Periskopi(an hour ago)
(an hour ago)Funding health systems and managing hospital service costs remain a common challenge for all Western Balkan countries. The most recent data released by Eurostat for 2024 shows how much a resident is actually spent on care services for patients who are laid out (the hospital services) throughout our region.
According to official statistics, distribution of these expenditures varies significantly from country to country. At the top of the regional ranking is Albania, which spends on hospital hospital admission 135 euros per resident. Bosnia and Herzegovina next ranks with 111 euros per capita, followed by Serbia with 92 euros and Montenegro at 79 euros. At the end of this list for 2024 is northern Macedonia, which reports the lowest rate of only 42 euros per resident.
The data represents the total expenditures, which means they include both public funds, state budgets and insurance, as well as the money citizens pay directly from their own pocket to hospital services.
In countries where the state covers less costs, citizens spend more privately, which automatically increases the total value reported per capita. This is the case of Albania, which has public health spending at lower regional levels, but residents' expenses are very high due to direct pocket payments.
In many economies of the region, a significant portion of hospital care spending is covered by direct payments from patients' pocket, which increase over scarce public or health insurance funds. This causes nominal figures to reflect the cost affordable by the individual rather than the state per capita investment.
The Western Balkan countries are characterised by low levels of spending and public investment in European-level healthcare systems. Historically, this indicator for our region has remained below the European Union average, which in recent years fluctuates between 7% and 10% of the Bruto (PBB) domestic production.
Within this region, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro maintain the highest levels of spending, being the only ones to pass the 5% GDP threshold. At a lower level, North Macedonia allores about 3.8% of GDP for public health. Eventually, Albania and Kosovo rank historically at the end of this regional table, where in Albania's concrete case, public health sector spending has fluctuated at an interval of 2.8% to 2.9% of GDP.
