“The Austrian health system is relatively costly. Around US$5 138 was spent on health per capita in 2015 (adjusted for differences in purchasing power), about US$1 800 more than the EU average. Health expenditure in Austria is also high relative to GDP (10.2% of GDP in 2015), which is considerably above the EU average (8.7%). More than 75% of total current health expenditure is financed from public sources. About 18% of expenditure is out-of-pocket (OOP) payments, which is above the EU average (15%), while voluntary health insurance (VHI) only plays a minor role in the system. Average growth rates of health expenditure have been constantly higher than GDP growth rates in recent years, which is currently tackled by caps on federal, sectoral and state (Länder) health budgets as part of health care reform.

“The health system is financed by a mix of general tax revenues and compulsory social health insurance (SHI) contributions. Income-related SHI contributions accounted for about 60% of publicly financed health expenditures, while the remaining 40% come from general taxation, including value-added tax (VAT), income tax and tobacco tax, which are collected at federal level. SHI has nearly universal coverage (99.9%). There is no competition between SHI funds as the insured are assigned by type or place of employment.”

Source: Bachner F, Bobek J, Habimana K, Ladurner J, Lepuschütz L, Ostermann H, Rainer L, Schmidt A E, Zuba M, Quentin W, Winkelmann J. Austria: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2018; 20(3): 1 – 256. http://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/partners/observatory/publications/health-system-reviews-hits/full-list-of-country-hits/austria-hit-2018