In 2019, health expenditure in Estonia increased by 9% to 1.89 billion euros. Public sector expenditures increased by 10% and household out-of-pocket payments on health care by 6%, according to recent statistics from the National Institute for Health Development (NIHD).
Expenditures of the public sector, i.e. the Estonian Health Insurance Fund, the central government and local governments, grew faster in 2019 than expenditures of households. The share of the public sector in health expenditure increased by 132 million euros and household expenditure increased by 27 million euros over the year. Households' own contribution to health expenditure was 23.9%, compared to 24.5% a year earlier. "Estonia is still close to the critical limit of household out-of-pocket payment share (25%), above which difficulties may arise in paying for medical care, dental care, medicines and other services and goods necessary for life," commented Mare Ruuge, senior analyst of the health statistics department at the NIHD. The share of people's own contribution to health expenditures in Estonia has remained relatively at the same level over the last ten years and has been significantly higher than the WHO recommended level of 15% and higher than the average of the European Union countries – 22% (2018).
Data on Estonian health expenditure in 2019 by financing schemes, health care functions and service providers have been published in the Health Statistics and Health Research Database.