The health crisis has led to a sharp increase in health expenditure in Europe in 2020. According to the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees), it increased by 15.7% in the Kingdom. United, 6.3% in Germany, 3.9% in France and 2.6% in Italy.
Belgium is the only country in Europe where health spending fell in 2020 (-3.3%).
But unlike other countries, this Belgian assessment does not take into account “
compensation paid to health professionals whose activity was limited or prevented by the health crisis
”.
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In purchasing power parity, each country devotes a different amount to health, from 3800 euros per inhabitant in the United Kingdom, up to 5450 euros in Switzerland.
France is in ninth position, at 4,150 euros per person, with an increase of 150 euros between 2019 and 2020. Faced with Covid-19, European countries have also adopted more or less expensive strategies.
For example, the UK has spent around 16.5 billion euros on masks.
The country is singled out for multiple management errors such as the purchase of defective products and badly overestimated demand from the authorities.
No bonus for caregivers in England
Critics also turn to Germany vis-à-vis its policy of purchasing masks and protective equipment, deemed costly (7 billion euros) and poorly planned by the German Court of Auditors.
For its part, France devoted 3.9 billion euros to the purchase of masks in 2020 and 0.7 billion to personal protective equipment, i.e. 4.6 billion euros.
This sum comes from an exceptional endowment paid to the National Public Health Agency.
Regarding screening tests, the United Kingdom spent nearly 4.8 billion euros for the year 2020, against 2.7 billion for France and 1.4 billion for Germany.
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The amount of premiums intended for nursing staff is also very uneven depending on the country.
If the United Kingdom has granted 700 million euros in bonuses, England is the only nation (among Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) not to have paid a bonus to caregivers in 2020. France paid 2.4 billion euros in premiums, not counting the Ségur de la santé measures, which came into force at the end of 2020. One country particularly stands out from its neighbors.
This is Germany, with a much lower cost, amounting to 100 million euros in premiums.
These applied only to establishments having treated a large number of patients with Covid-19 in 2020. But less than a quarter of German clinics were eligible for this device.