UK and Twenty Comparable Countries GDP-Expenditure-on-Health 1980-2013: The Historic and Continued Low Priority of UK Health-Related Expenditure

Abstract

It is well-established that for a considerable period the United Kingdom has spent proportionally less of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health-related services than almost any other comparable country. Average European spending on health (as a % of GDP) in the period 1980 to 2013 has been 19% higher than the United Kingdom, indicating that comparable countries give far greater fiscal priority to its health services, irrespective of its actual fiscal value or configuration. While the UK National Health Service (NHS) is a comparatively lean healthcare system, it is often regarded to be at a 'crisis' point on account of low levels of funding. Indeed, many state that currently the NHS has a sizeable funding gap, in part due to its recently reduced GDP devoted to health but mainly the challenges around increases in longevity, expectation and new medical costs. The right level of health funding is a political value judgement. As the data in this paper outline, if the UK 'afforded' the same proportional level of funding as the mean average European country, total expenditure would currently increase by one-fifth.

Cancer‐related outcomes in kidney allograft recipients in England versus New York State: a comparative population‐cohort analysis between 2003 and 2013

“…Differences in health care funding, services and delivery likely all confound a formal comparison of cohorts between England and NYS. For example, studies comparing healthcare systems in the United Kingdom with elsewhere, including the United States, have shown differences in expenditure (lower in England) and cost effectiveness (lower in United States) . However, it should be noted that cancer‐related mortality has been reducing over the last 10–15 years in both England and the United States and our differences in outcome must be interpreted against this background.…”

USA Child (0-4) and Adult (55-74) Mortality and % GDP-Health Expenditure and the Other Western Countries 1989-2015. America needs an “National Neighbourhood Health Service”

“…It may be that this disproportionate high %GDPEH is undermined by the simple fact that the USA has considerably wider income inequality than the other Western countries [3,19]. This points towards the impact of relative poverty upon health outcomes, which can be evidenced from a close perusal of This raises the question, should the USA increase even further its %GDPHE or primarily address the poverty issues related to people from poorer backgrounds, a feature found in every Western country but more marked in the USA [6,8,9,33,34].…”

“…The recent debate about repealing the Affordable Health Care Act (Obama Care) was based upon the argument that it was ineffi cient and that there were rising complaints about rising costs [1]. This might be seen as a reasonable economic question because it has long been known that the USA spends more of its %GDP on health than any other country [2,3]. So the question can be translated into asking, does the USA get a good return on its fi nancial investment into health care?…”

“…Earlier work has shown an unexpected fi nding that although the USA has long had the highest %GDPEH of all Western countries it has poorer health outcomes than many OWC [3,6], which have been described as "the US health care paradox" [20,21], of a health system that is predominately funded from `Private' (employment or personal insurance related) than `Public' sources coming from State or Federal avenues [22]. This appears related to the problems of a predominantly private insurance model, as even within the Affordable Care Act, the insurance company needs to make a profi t. Therefore, because of market uncertainty, it has been shown that costs will need to be higher to account for previous illnesses and medical unknowns and under-lying conditions [5,[23][24][25][26], than in a predominately direct-taxation based service as such a service as the British National Health Service (NHS) which provides a free health care at the point of delivery, irrespective of any pre-existing conditions.…”

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