Web-economic-crisis-health-systems-and-health-web

Iceland
Sigrún Gunnarsdóttir and Thorbjörn Jónsson
Economic trends
• In 2008, Iceland had the largest budget deficit as a share of GDP in the
European region; budget deficits have remained large each year through
2011. After negative real per capita GDP growth in 2009 and 2010,
Iceland's economy returned to positive growth in 2011.
• Although unemployment rates are higher than before the crisis, they are
below the European mean.
• The health share of government expenditure has remained higher
than it was in 2008 and is above the European average. Nevertheless,
public per capita expenditure on health decreased by 3.0% in 2009 and
10.4% in 2010. In 2010, OOP spending grew by only 0.1% (Iceland:
Figs 1 and 2).
Policy responses
Changes to public funding for the health system
• The health budget experienced annual cuts of 5% following the crisis; the
government planned to increase the health budget from 2012 onwards.
Changes to health coverage
Population (entitlement)
• Extended free access to dental care for households with low income
(2009).
The benefits package
• A rehabilitation fund was set up to prevent employees on extended sick leave
from losing their jobs (2008).
User charges
• Physicians in ambulatory care increased user charges, resulting in an
increase of 5–10% in user charges for this care and in the patient share
of ambulatory care costs (2009–2011). This may explain why household
expenditure on health care services rose from ISK 27.9 million in 2008
to ISK 28.9 million in 2011.