Health expenditure per capita, USD PPP, 2022
– Government/compulsory: $5,622
– Voluntary/Out-of-pocket: $1,007
– Total: $6,630
Health expenditure as a share of GDP, 2022
– Government/compulsory: 10.3%
– Voluntary/out-of-pocket: 1.8%
Health expenditure by type of financing, 2021
– Government schemes: 4%
– Compulsory health insurance: 81%
– Voluntary health insurance: 6%
– Out-of-pocket: 9%
– Other: 1%
Expenditure on retail pharmaceuticals per capita, USD PPP, 2021
– Prescription medicines: $646
– Over-the-counter medicines: $55
– Total: $701
Expenditure on retail pharmaceuticals by type of financing, 2021:
– Government/compulsory schemes: 83%
– Voluntary health insurance schemes: 5%
– Out-of-pocket spending: 12%
– Other: 0%
Total long-term care spending by provider, 2021
– Nursing home: 61%
– Hospital: 7%
– Home care: 24%
– Households: 0%
– Social providers: 0%
– Other: 7%
Source: OECD (2023), Health at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, doi.org/10.1787/7a7afb35-en.
Current health expenditure (CHE) per capita in US$, 2022: $4,865.18
Source: Global Health Observatory. Current health expenditure (CHE) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed Jan. 23, 2025.
Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOP) per capita in US$, 2022: $434.13
Source: Global Health Observatory. Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOP) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed Jan. 23, 2025.
Out-of-pocket expenditure as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE) (%), 2022: 8.92%
Source: Global Health Observatory. Out-of-pocket expenditure as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed Jan. 23, 2025.
Domestic private health expenditure (PVT-D) as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE) (%), 2022: 24.57%
Source: Global Health Observatory. Domestic private health expenditure (PVT-D) as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed Jan. 23, 2025.
Domestic private health expenditure (PVT-D) per capita in US$, 2022: $1195.50
Source: Global Health Observatory. Domestic private health expenditure (PVT-D) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed Jan. 23, 2025.
Domestic general government health expenditure (GGHE-D) as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE) (%), 2022: 75.43%
Source: Global Health Observatory. Domestic general government health expenditure (GGHE-D) as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed Jan. 23, 2025.
Domestic general government health expenditure (GGHE-D) as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) (%), 2022: 8.96%
Source: Global Health Observatory. Domestic general government health expenditure (GGHE-D) as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed Jan. 23, 2025.
Domestic general government health expenditure (GGHE-D) per capita in US$, 2022: $3,669.68
Source: Global Health Observatory. Domestic general government health expenditure (GGHE-D) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed Jan. 23, 2025.
Domestic general government health expenditure (GGHE-D) as percentage of general government expenditure (GGE), 2021: 15.8%
Source: World health statistics 2024: monitoring health for the SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: Statistical Annex. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2024. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. Last accessed June 3, 2024.
Annual household out-of-pocket payment in current USD per capita, 2020: $426
Source: Global Health Expenditure Database. Health expenditure series. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed May 13, 2023.
Total Health Spending, USD PPP Per Capita (2021): $6,106
(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 (2023), Health spending (indicator). doi: 10.1787/8643de7e-en (Accessed on 21 November 2023).
“Health spending in France accounted for 12.3 % of GDP in 2021, which was the second highest share in the EU after Germany and above the EU average of 11.0 %. This was the highest level recorded in France, and more than 1 percentage point higher than before the pandemic, driven mainly by the substantial increase in public spending on health during the first two years of the pandemic.4
“In 2021, French health spending per capita was the fifth highest across the EU, at EUR 4 202 (adjusted for differences in purchasing power) compared to the EU average of EUR 4 030 (Figure 8).
“Since 1996, annual growth in SHI expenditure has been controlled by national health spendingtargets. However, the COVID-19 pandemic addedsubstantial expenditure to the health budget(Box 1). Public spending on health in real termsgrew by 2.3 % in 2020 and by 8.9 % in 2021, beforecoming back to a growth rate of about 2 % in 2022according to the latest national estimates (DREES, 2023a).”
Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2023), France: Country Health Profile 2023, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.
“Outpatient care (including primary care, specialist and dental care) and inpatient care are the two largest categories of health spending, accounting for 28 % and 27 % of the total in 2021 (Figure 9). Retail pharmaceuticals and medical devices also took up a considerable share of health resources, at 19 % of health spending, while long-term care made up 16 %.
“Spending on prevention increased greatly during the pandemic and accounted for 5.5 % of all health expenditure in 2021. It fell in 2022, although it remained above the usual level of about 3 % before the pandemic (DREES, 2023a).”
Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2023), France: Country Health Profile 2023, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.
“In France fee-for-service physician payment occurs within budget constraints set by parliament and the Ministry of the Economy and Finance. UNCAM [Union Nationale des Caisses d’Assurance Maladie] negotiates fees with representatives of the physicians unions. All physicians in the community and in private for-profit hospitals are reimbursed according to this fee schedule. Most public hospital physicians are paid on a part-time or full-time salaried basis. Although the state is not officially involved, it closely monitors the negotiations between UNCAM and the physicians unions.”
Source: Michael K. Gusmano, Miriam Laugesen, Victor G. Rodwin, and Lawrence D. Brown. Getting The Price Right: How Some Countries Control Spending In A Fee-For-Service System. Health Affairs 2020 39:11, 1867-1874.
“As a result of fee negotiations within expenditure targets, physicians in all three countries earn lower incomes than their US counterparts. For example, in 2016 generalist physicians in the US earned an average of $218,173. In comparison, generalists in France and Germany earned $111,769 and $154,126, respectively. Similarly, specialist physicians in the US earned an average of $316,000 in 2016, compared with $153,180 in France and $181,253 in Germany.3 Japanese physicians earned, on average, $124,558 in 2016; however, this is an average of generalist and specialist incomes.
“Policy makers in the US have been concerned that fee-for-service payment results in an excessive volume of services. The French response to excess volume was to impose expenditure targets in 1996 and 2010, but France exceeded its budget targets frequently.12,25 Within the past decade physician fee increases and total annual spending have been held in line. This success reflects tighter political control by parliament, the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, which has made budget constraints explicit for UNCAM [Union Nationale des Caisses d’Assurance Maladie] in negotiations with physicians unions.”
Source: Michael K. Gusmano, Miriam Laugesen, Victor G. Rodwin, and Lawrence D. Brown. Getting The Price Right: How Some Countries Control Spending In A Fee-For-Service System. Health Affairs 2020 39:11, 1867-1874.
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Page last updated February 18, 2025 by Doug McVay, Editor.