Abstract
Expenditures on mental health care in the Czech Republic are not being published regularly, yet they are indispensable for evaluation of the ongoing reform of Czech mental health care. The main objective of this study is to estimate the size of these expenditures in 2015 and make a comparison with the last available figures from the year 2006. The estimation is based on an OECD methodology of health accounts, which structures health care expenditures according to health care functions, provider industries, and payers. The expenditures are further decomposed according to diagnoses, and inputs used in service production. The amount spent on mental health care in 2015 reached more than 13.7 billion Czech korunas (EUR 501.6 million), which represented 4.08% of the total health care expenditures. This ratio is almost identical with the 2006 share (4.14%). There are no significant changes in the relative expenditures on mental health care and in the structure of service provision. The Czech mental health care system remains largely hospital based with most of all mental health care expenditures being spent on inpatient care. Future developments in the expenditures will indicate the success of the current effort to deinstitutionalise mental health care.
Highlights
The societal burden of mental health problems has so far not been met with an adequate response [1]
The estimation is based on an OECD methodology of health accounts, which structures health care expenditures according to health care functions, provider industries, and payers
Mental health care expenditures represent 4.08% of the total health care budget according to the original guidelines SHA 1.0 [20]
Summary
The societal burden of mental health problems has so far not been met with an adequate response [1]. More than a quarter of people experience a mental health problem every year [2,3,4,5]. The societal costs of mental disorders reached 461 billion euro in Europe in 2010 [6]. The average expenditures on mental disorders do not match their burden, especially in the case of Eastern Europe: While the mental health care expenditures amounted on average to 7% of the total health care budget of the old fifteen EU countries, in Eastern European countries this share reached only 3.3 % according to the WHO 2011 Mental Health Atlas.[9]. The last available estimate for the Czech Republic (2006) is 4.14% [10]
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