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

Chapter 2 | The impact of the crisis on the health system and health in Estonia
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sustainable recovery. The health budget was not cut drastically compared with
other sectors. In fact, there was an increase in the health share of total public
expenditure from 11.5% in 2007 to 12.3% in 2011 (Fig. 2.1). The reason for this
increase was the reduction of expenditure on temporary sick leave cash benefits in
the EHIF's budget, leaving more funds to finance health care (see below).
Total health expenditure increased in 2008 by 18.6%, followed by decreases of
1.5% and 6.3% in the years that followed (Table 2.2). The decrease in public
spending on health was a little smaller, leading to an increase in public spending
on health as a share of total health expenditure compared with the pre-crisis
period from 75.6% in 2007 to 79.3% in 2011 (see also Table 2.3).
Fig. 2.1 Public expenditure on health as a share of total public expenditure in Estonia,
2007–2011
Expenditure (% total public expenditure)
12.4
12.2
12.0
11.8
11.6
11.4
11.2
11.0
11.5
11.9
11.6
Source: National Institute for Health Development, 2013a.
12.3 12.3
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Table 2.2 Total and public expenditure on health in Estonia, 2006–2011
Year THE Public sector
health expenditure
€
millions
Change
(%)
€
millions
Change
(%)
Public spending
on health as
a share of THE
(%)
2006 671.8 492.1 73.3
2007 829.1 23.4 626.7 27.3 75.6
2008 983.5 18.6 765.3 22.1 77.8
2009 968.7 –1.5 729.0 –4.7 75.3
2010 908.0 –6.3 716.0 –1.8 78.9
2011 944.6 4.0 749.3 4.7 79.3
Note: THE: Total health expenditure.
Source: National Institute for Health Development, 2013a.