The A.C. of the Basque Country spent 2,215 million euros on expenditure for goods and services related to personal health in 1999, a figure which represents 6.1% of the GDP for the same year. This expenditure represented an increase of almost 12% with regard to1997.

These are some of the results of the Health Account of the A.C. of the Basque Country for 1999, that the EUSTAT carried out for the second time using the OECD methodology -System of Health Accounts-SHA.

As a percentage of GDP, however, expenditure fell from 6.4% to 6.1% for this period, a reduction which is explained by the sharp growth in the economy (18%) between 1997 and 1999, much higher than the growth in health expenditure.

With regard to finance, most health expenditure, 76%, was provided by public institutions, the most important of which were the Public Institution -OSAKIDETZA, with 51%, and the Department of Health of the Basque Government, which financed 21% of current expenditure.

Private finance accounted for 24% of current finance, where 17% was direct finance by households.

In the distribution of current expenditure by health functions, most continues to correspond to curative health care, which includes almost all hospital and outpatient care, with 59% of the total, this represents a five percent decrease with regard to 1997 as a result of moderate growth (+1.6%) between these two years. Secondly, with regard to the percentage of expenditure, expenditure on health products supplied to outpatients, including pharmaceutical products and prostheses, registered the highest relative growth (+21.5%), increasing to represent 24% of the total current expenditure, two percent higher than in 1997.

Most health expenditure took effect in hospitals with 47%. Ambulatory health care providers –health centres, medical and dental surgeries among others- were the second category in order of importance, with 25%; while in third place were suppliers of health products, mainly pharmacies with 22%.

Expenditure per inhabitant, measured in units of Purchasing Power Capacity (PPC), was 1,342, which placed our Community above countries like Portugal (1,203), Greece (1,198) and Spain (1,194), but a long way behind the values for Switzerland (2,853) or Germany (2,361).

In addition and with regard to the relative distribution of expenditure among public and private institutions, the health sector in the A.C. of the Basque Country is in line with the rest of OECD countries, where public expenditure represented 74% on average, compared with 76% for the A.C. of the Basque Country.