Total Health Spending, USD PPP Per Capita (2019): $3,428

(Note: “Health spending measures the final consumption of health care goods and services (i.e. current health expenditure) including personal health care (curative care, rehabilitative care, long-term care, ancillary services and medical goods) and collective services (prevention and public health services as well as health administration), but excluding spending on investments. Health care is financed through a mix of financing arrangements including government spending and compulsory health insurance (“Government/compulsory”) as well as voluntary health insurance and private funds such as households’ out-of-pocket payments, NGOs and private corporations (“Voluntary”). This indicator is presented as a total and by type of financing (“Government/compulsory”, “Voluntary”, “Out-of-pocket”) and is measured as a share of GDP, as a share of total health spending and in USD per capita (using economy-wide PPPs).”

Source: OECD (2021), Health spending (indicator). doi: 10.1787/8643de7e-en (Accessed on 20 January 2021).

Current Health Expenditure Per Capita in US$ (2019): $1,844

Source: Global Health Observatory. Current health expenditure (CHE) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.

Current Health Expenditure As Percentage Of Gross Domestic Product (2019): 7.83%

Source: Global Health Observatory. Current health expenditure (CHE) as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.

Out-Of-Pocket Expenditure As Percentage Of Current Health Expenditure (2019): 14.15%

Source: Global Health Observatory. Out-of-pocket expenditure as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.

Out-Of-Pocket Expenditure Per Capita in US$ (2019): $261

Source: Global Health Observatory. Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOP) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.

Annual household out-of-pocket payment, current US$ per capita (2019): $261

Source: Global Health Expenditure Database. Health expenditure series. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 21, 2022.

Out-of-Pocket Spending as Share of Final Household Consumption (%) (2017): 2.3%

Source: OECD (2019), Health at a Glance 2019: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4dd50c09-en.

Remuneration of Doctors, Ratio to Average Wage (2019)
General Practitioners: NA
Specialists: 2.4

Source: OECD (2021), Health at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ae3016b9-en.

Remuneration of Hospital Nurses, Ratio to Average Wage (2019): 1.3
Remuneration of Hospital Nurses, USD PPP (2019): $36,600

Source: OECD (2021), Health at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ae3016b9-en.

“In 2019, Czechia spent EUR 2,362 per capita (adjusted for differences in purchasing power) on health – substantially lower than the EU weighted average. As a share of GDP, health spending reached 7.8%, which is also below the EU average of 9.9% (Figure 7). However, the share of public financing of health has historically been high in Czechia: at 82% in 2019, it was above the EU average of 79.7%. The main source of health expenditure is SHI [Social Health Insurance] contributions (consisting of wage-based contributions for employees from employers, income-related contributions from self-employed people and state contributions for specific groups of economically inactive people), supplemented by funding from state and territorial budgets, EU funds and private expenditure. Out-of-pocket expenditure consists of cost-sharing, such as co-payments for prescribed pharmaceuticals. Since health insurance is compulsory, all the population is covered.”

“In 2012 total health expenditure as a share of GDP in the Czech Republic was low compared to the EU15 countries, but above most of the EU13 figures (Fig. 3.1). Despite the steady increase in health expenditure in the 1990s and 2000s, the gap between EU15 averages and the Czech Republic kept widening. From 2009 onwards most countries including the Czech Republic followed a slight and simultaneous downward trend in health expenditures. Low total health expenditure in the Czech Republic has been the subject of frequent criticism by various stakeholders in the health system, including physicians and other health-care personnel, especially as it is seen to be limiting their pay rises (see also Section 3.7.2 Paying health workers).”

Source: Alexa J, Rečka L, Votápková J, van Ginneken E, Spranger A, Wittenbecher F. Czech Republic: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2015; 17(1):1–165.

“As shown in Fig. 3.3, in 2012 health expenditure per capita in the Czech Republic in US$ PPP (purchasing power parity) was low compared to the EU15 member states, but considerably higher than the EU13 average and the third highest among the Visegrád group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). Higher per capita expenditure in Slovakia can be partly explained by higher private expenditure, mainly in the form of out-of-pocket-payments (Szalay et al., 2011) (see Fig. 3.4). Health expenditure from public sources as a share of total health expenditure in the Czech Republic is among the highest in the WHO European Region (see Fig. 3.4), which reflects a broad benefits package and virtually universal coverage (see section 3.3.1). The introduction of, and constant changes to, user fees has led to some slight variation of this figure in recent years. In 2012 health expenditure from public sources increased to 84.8% of total health expenditure (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2014a).”

Source: Alexa J, Rečka L, Votápková J, van Ginneken E, Spranger A, Wittenbecher F. Czech Republic: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2015; 17(1):1–165.

“Out-of-pocket payments in the Czech Republic mainly consist of (1) direct payments for over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and some dental procedures; (2) co-payments on medical aids and prescription pharmaceuticals, the actual price of which exceeds the reference price in a particular pharmaceutical group, and – between 2012 and 2013 – on above-standard care (see section 3.3.1); and (3) user fees for prescription pharmaceuticals and various health services. These three categories accounted for virtually 100% of all private sources of health expenditure and for 15.7% of total health expenditure in 2011 (Czech Statistical Office, 2014a). OOP payments as a percentage of final household expenditure in the Czech Republic remain among the lowest in OECD countries (OECD, 2014a).”

Source: Alexa J, Rečka L, Votápková J, van Ginneken E, Spranger A, Wittenbecher F. Czech Republic: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2015; 17(1):1–165.

Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and sixteen other nations.

Page last updated Nov. 12, 2022 by Doug McVay, Editor.