Household spending on health increased by 5% in 2023

According to the Health Satellite Account 2024, household expenditure on private hospitals increased by 12.6%, on providers of continuing health care services as a secondary activity by 11.7%, on other sales of medical goods by 8.0% and on private outpatient health care providers by 6.5%.

The INE also recorded that families “reduced their spending on pharmacies by 4.8%, especially on the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE), disinfectants, self-tests and rapid antigen tests for professional use”.

The data also revealed that expenditure 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 (pp) less than in 2022 (6.8%).

“Financing for public hospitals grew by 8.4%, mainly due to the increase in personnel costs,” reads the document published on the INE website.

The growth was due to the valorization of the career of nurses and the remuneration of workers in public functions and the extension of the regime of overtime work for doctors in emergency services.

The increase in health services contracted from contracted entities in the areas of hospitalization, hemodialysis and physical rehabilitation medicine contributed to the growth in expenditure on private hospitals (12.4%) and on private outpatient health care providers (10.9%).

Expenditure on public outpatient healthcare providers registered a significant reduction of 14.5%, essentially justified by the reduction in costs associated with the vaccination process against Covid-19.

Spending in pharmacies decreased by 2.1%, reflecting the end of the co-payment for rapid antigen tests for professional use.

The INE estimates an increase in current expenditure by the main financing agents for 2024, with emphasis on insurance companies (17.3%), the SNS and SRS (10.2%) and voluntary public health subsystems (9.7%).

«In structural terms, the relative weight of the SNS and SRS (+0.7 pp) and insurance companies (+0.4 pp) is expected to increase, while household spending is expected to lose relative importance, with an estimated reduction of 1.1 pp», he stressed.