Impact of Demographic Changes on Healthcare Expenditures and Funding in the EU

Abstract

While there are many international comparisons on the impact of demographic changes on future healthcare expenditures, there are few such comparisons with regard to the impact of demographic changes on future healthcare funding. The purpose of this article is to analyse the impact of demographic changes on healthcare expenditures and funding in 14 selected EU Member States. This article shows that in most countries, healthcare costs per worker are predicted to increase at a faster rate than per capita costs, because workers comprise a decreasing proportion of the total population. On the other hand, the impact of aging on healthcare payments per worker is about the same as healthcare costs per capita because citizens have to make out-of-pocket payments for healthcare. Roughly one-quarter of the predicted income growth of the work-force will be used for aging-related healthcare payments.