Annual household out-of-pocket payment, current USD per capita (2017): $797

Source: Global Health Expenditure Database. Health expenditure series. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed Oct. 6, 2020.

Out-of-Pocket Spending as Share of Final Household Consumption (%) (2017): 3.1%

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

“Financing for the health system is from general proportional income tax for the central budget and proportional income tax at the local level. The public share of health spending has remained relatively stable at around 84 % of total health expenditure, substantially higher than the EU average (79 % in 2017).

“Out-of-pocket (OOP) spending is low overall, accounting for only 14 % of all health spending in 2017 (compared with an EU average of 16 %), but still plays a major role in paying for medicines, dental services, physiotherapy and glasses. While a significant proportion of the population are covered by some private health insurance (approximately 40 % by complementary private insurance and 35 % by duplicate private insurance), spending through voluntary health insurance amounts to less than 3 % of all health spending.”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2019), Denmark: Country Health Profile 2019, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

“While there is no cost-sharing for core hospital and primary care services, people pay out of pocket for adult dental care (35-100 % of total costs), pharmaceutical prescriptions purchased outside hospitals and other medical devices like hearing aids and eyeglasses. Subsidies for outpatient pharmaceuticals increase progressively and there is an overall cap of 4,030 krone (EUR 550) per year. Additional means-tested social assistance for older people and socially disadvantaged people also exists (Commonwealth Fund, 2017).

“A growing proportion of Danish people purchase complementary voluntary insurance to pay for pharmaceuticals, dental care, physiotherapy and other services, while supplementary (duplicate) insurance (providing expanded and faster access to private providers) is often provided as an employment benefit. Nonetheless, payments through voluntary health insurance amount to less than 3 % of all health spending.

“People in Denmark pay for about 14 % of their health care costs directly out of pocket, a lower share than in the EU as a whole (Figure 16). This share has remained fairly stable over the past decade. A large part of OOP [Out Of Pocket] payments go to pharmaceuticals and dental care.”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2019), Denmark: Country Health Profile 2019, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

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 Sept. 28, 2022 by Doug McVay, Editor.