“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.

“Healthcare expenditure is slightly higher than the average for EU15 countries. More than 80% of health care expenditure is financed by the state through a combination of block grants and activity-based financing. The importance of out-of-pocket payments differs markedly by service, playing a major role in financing drugs, dental services and glasses, while playing only a minor role for other services. VHI is available for the population. Since 2002, supplementary VHI subsidized by the state has played a small but rapidly growing role in financing elective surgery and physiotherapy – and has been the subject of intense political debate between politicians who argue that VHI contributes to a more effective health care sector or that it introduces inequality in access to care. The municipalities are financed through income taxes (rates set locally, collected centrally) and block grants from the state, while the regions are financed by the state (income tax, VAT, taxes on specific goods, etc.) and the municipalities. The financing structure reflects attempts to control costs through global budgeting and upper limits to private providers’ turnover. It also reflects efforts to strengthen health promotion, clinical production and responsiveness to patients by use of free choice of hospital in combination with activity-based hospital financing and by the introduction of reimbursement from the municipalities to the regions, thereby providing the municipalities with a financial incentive to keep their citizens healthy.”

Source: Olejaz M, Juul Nielsen A, Rudkjøbing A, Okkels Birk H, Krasnik A, Hernández-Quevedo C. Denmark: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2012, 14(2):1 – 192.

“Health expenditure in Denmark exceeded 10 % of GDP in 2017 and is mostly financed by public sources (see Section 4). Following reductions in 2010 and 2011 after the economic crisis, public spending on health has grown more or less at the same rate as GDP since 2012 (Figure 19), and the share of GDP allocated to health has therefore remained fairly stable. This slow growth in health spending reflects cost-control efforts, notably to limit costs in hospitals and for pharmaceuticals.”

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.

“Danish health care expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita is higher than the average for EU15 countries (Figs 3.1 – 3.3). The share has increased consistently and reached a higher level than in comparable countries at the beginning of the present century (Fig. 3.2). It fell slightly during the 1980s and the 1990s, followed by a rise from 2000 and onwards (Table 3.1; Schieber, Poullier & Greenwald, 1994; National Board of Health 2010a), although a break in the time series by 2003 complicates interpretations of the data.”

Source: Olejaz M, Juul Nielsen A, Rudkjøbing A, Okkels Birk H, Krasnik A, Hernández-Quevedo C. Denmark: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2012, 14(2):1 – 192.

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 several other nations.

Page last updated March 25, 2021 by Doug McVay, Editor.