According to the 2024 Health Satellite Account, household spending in private hospitals increased by 12.6%, spending on providers of continued healthcare services as a secondary activity increased by 11.7%, on other sales of medical goods by 8.0%, and on private providers of outpatient healthcare by 6.5%.
The National Statistics Institute (INE) also noted that households “reduced their spending on pharmacies by 4.8%, particularly in the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE), disinfectants, self-tests, and professional-use rapid antigen tests.”
The data also revealed that spending by the National Health Service (SNS) and the Regional Health Services (SRS) of the Autonomous Regions increased by 3.6% in 2023, 3.2 percentage points (p.p.) less than in 2022 (6.8%).
“The funding of public hospitals grew by 8.4%, mainly due to increased personnel costs,” stated the document published today on the INE’s website.
This growth was attributed to the appreciation of nurses’ careers and the remuneration of public function workers, as well as the extension of overtime regulations for doctors in emergency services.
The increase in health services contracted to agreed entities in the areas of hospitalization, hemodialysis, and physical rehabilitation medicine contributed to the growth in spending on private hospitals (12.4%) and private outpatient healthcare providers (10.9%).
Spending on public outpatient healthcare providers saw a significant reduction of 14.5%, mainly due to decreased costs associated with the COVID-19 vaccination process.
Pharmacy spending dropped by 2.1%, reflecting the end of the subsidy for professional-use rapid antigen tests.
INE estimates that by 2024, there will be an increase in current expenditure by the main funding agents, with notable increases for insurance companies (17.3%), SNS and SRS (10.2%), and voluntary public health subsystems (9.7%).
“Structurally, an increase in the relative weight of SNS and SRS (+0.7 p.p.) and insurance companies (+0.4 p.p.) is expected, while household expenditure is expected to lose relative importance, with an estimated reduction of 1.1 p.p.,” it highlighted.
