Austria’s Health System Overview
Health System Rankings
Health System Outcomes
Health System Coverage
Health System Costs for Consumers
Health System Expenditures
Austria’s COVID-19 National Policy
Total Health Spending, USD PPP Per Capita (2021): $6,693.31
(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 24 May 2023).
Current Health Expenditure As Percentage Of Gross Domestic Product, 2020: 11.47%
Source: Global Health Observatory. Current health expenditure (CHE) as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed May 14, 2023.
Current Health Expenditure Per Capita in USD, 2020: $5,585
Source: Global Health Observatory. Current health expenditure (CHE) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed May 13, 2023.
Out-Of-Pocket Expenditure As Percentage Of Current Health Expenditure, 2020: 16.8%
Source: Global Health Observatory. Out-of-pocket expenditure as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed May 13, 2023.
Out-Of-Pocket Expenditure Per Capita in USD, 2020: $938.5
Source: Global Health Observatory. Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOP) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed May 13, 2023.
Annual household out-of-pocket payment in current USD per capita, 2021: $1,002
Source: Global Health Expenditure Database. Health expenditure series. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed May 13, 2023.
Domestic General Government Health Expenditure as Percentage of General Government Expenditure (%) (2018): 15.5%
Source: World health statistics 2021: monitoring health for the SDGs, sustainable development goals. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
Annual household out-of-pocket payment, current USD per capita (2019): $927
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): 4.0%
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 (2017)
General Practitioners: 2.8
Specialists: 4.2
Source: OECD (2019), Health at a Glance 2019: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4dd50c09-en.
Remuneration of Hospital Nurses, Ratio to Average Wage (2017): NA
Remuneration of Hospital Nurses, USD PPP (2017): NA
Source: OECD (2019), Health at a Glance 2019: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4dd50c09-en.
“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.”
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.
“The health care sector is an important part of the Austrian economy. In 2015, current health expenditure amounted to €35 077 million or 10.2% of GDP (see Table 3.1). In the same year, €2 500 million were spent on gross capital formation, bringing the total health expenditure to €37 600 million (see section 4.1.1).
“Current health expenditures grew at an annual average rate of about 3.9% between 2000 and 2015, which was higher than the average nominal GDP growth of 3.2% over the same period (see Table 3.1). However, health expenditure growth has declined to 3.3% between 2010 and 2015, which can be partially attributed to the global financial crisis in 2008/2009 and the cost control measures of the Austrian health care reform 2013 – the first Federal Target-Based Governance Agreement (see also section 6.1.2).
“Health expenditures in Austria have consistently been well above the average of EU countries but below those of Germany and Switzerland. Figure 3.1 shows trends in current health expenditure as a share of GDP between 1995 and 2015 for selected European countries. Also, when comparing expenditures on health in purchasing power parities (PPP) across countries, Austria spends considerably more than most other European countries (see Figure 3.2). In fact, total health expenditures per capita in Austria were 55% above the EU average (US$3 310) in 2015.
“Health care is largely publicly financed. In 2015, 75.6% of total health care expenditure was financed from public sources, mainly through SHI contributions and general taxation. The public share of health care financing has remained relatively stable since 2000 and was slightly above the average of the European Union in 2015 (see Figure 3.3).”
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.
World 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 May 24, 2023 by Doug McVay, Editor.
