Coronavirus pushed up health spending by €466 per person in 2021

Vaccines saved an estimated 88,000 people from hospital. Photo: Depositphotos
The arrival of vaccines pushed costs up. Photo: Depositphotos

Healthcare spending went up by €466 per person in 2021, largely as a result of coronavirus-related costs such as testing and vaccination.

The statistics agency CBS said spending was 7.6% higher than in 2020, when the costs went up by 8.3% or €475 per person compared to 2019.

The 2020 increases were mainly due to the €2.1 billion healthcare bonus and support
measures for healthcare providers amounting to €3.5 billion.

By 2021 the healthcare bonus had dropped to €700 million and support measures were down to €900 million.

However, the bill for testing and vaccination went up to €6.7 billion, compared to €1.7 billion in 2020 when vaccines were unavailable.

Spending on support services, including laboratories and patient transport, and to providers of preventive care, such as municipal health services rose, almost doubled to €9.9 billion, from €5.1 billion in 2020 to €9.9 billion 2021, mainly as a result of large-scale testing and vaccination.

Care costs for corona patients, mostly provided by hospitals, also rose from €1.4 billion in 2020 to €1.7 billion in 2021.

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