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Health care expenditure (SHA 2011) (hlth_sha11)

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National Reference Metadata in Euro SDMX Metadata Structure (ESMS)

Compiling agency: Ministry of Health.

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Health care expenditure quantifies the economic resources dedicated to health functions, excluding capital investment. Healthcare expenditure concerns itself primarily with healthcare goods and services that are consumed by resident units, irrespective of where that consumption takes place (it may be in the rest of the world) or who is paying for it. As such, exports of healthcare goods and services (to non-resident units) are excluded, whereas imports of healthcare goods and services for final use are included.
Health care expenditure data provide information on expenditure in the functionally defined area of health distinct by provider category (e.g. hospitals, general practitioners), function category (e.g. services of curative care, rehabilitative care, clinical laboratory, patient transport, prescribed medicines) and financing scheme (e.g. social security, private insurance company, household). For the collection of the data on health care expenditure the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and its related set of International Classification for the Health Accounts (ICHA) is used. SHA sets out an integrated system of comprehensive and internationally comparable accounts and provides a uniform framework of basic accounting rules and a set of standard tables for reporting health expenditure data. The System of Health Accounts - SHA 2011  is a statistical reference manual giving a comprehensive description of the financial flows in health care.

It provides a set of revised classifications of health care functions, providers of health care goods and services and financing schemes. The SHA is currently used as a basis for a joint data collection by OECD, Eurostat and WHO on health care expenditure. The manual sets out in more detail the boundaries, the definitions and the concepts of health accounting – responding to health care systems around the globe with very different organisational and financing arrangements.

Accounting period: Health expenditure and financing data pertain to the calendar year (1 January to 31 December).

30 May 2024

SHA concept is the consumption of health care goods and services.

Health care statistics describe the process of providing and financing health care in countries by referring to health care goods and services, its providers and financing. For the collection of the data on health care expenditure the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and its related set of International Classification for the Health Accounts (ICHA) is used. SHA is a tri-axial system in which the financing, provision and consumption dimensions are covered by the ICHA (International Classification for Health Accounts): Health Care Functions (HC), Health Care Providers (HP), Health Care Financing Schemes (HF).

Data are presented in 3 summary (one-dimensional) tables and 3 cross-classification tables (2-dimensional tables).

Summary tables provide data on:

  • Current expenditure by provider (ICHA-HP);
  • Current expenditure by function (ICHA-HC);
  • Current expenditure by financing scheme (ICHA-HF).

Cross-classification tables refer to:

  • HC x HP: Health care expenditure by function and provider: data on which type of health care goods and services are supplied by which health care provider;
  • HC x HF: Health care expenditure by function and by financing scheme: data on how are the different types of services and goods financed;
  • HP x HF: Health care expenditure by provider and by financing scheme: data on from which health care provider and under which particular financing scheme are the services and goods purchased.

The classifications and definitions presented in the SHA 2011 manual are to be followed. Additional guidelines and material useful for compilers are also available at this address.

Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1901, and Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/359 previously in force,  concern the collection of data on "current expenditure on healthcare" which is defined as the "final consumption expenditure of resident units on health care goods and services".

There is a very close relationship between the concept of "final consumption expenditure" as defined in the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and in National Account and, as a consequence, also between the underlying economic transactions as recorded in the two accounting frameworks.

In National Accounts there are two types of statistical units: institutional units and local kind-of-activity units (KAU). A local KAU groups all the parts of an institutional unit in its capacity as producer which are located in a single site. A local KAU belongs to one and only one institutional unit.

SHA uses the same two types of units for data compilation.

Local KAUs operating as providers of healthcare goods and services to resident units are statistical units in SHA.

Also transactions by institutional units are recorded in SHA, in which framework institutional units are also referred to as "financing agents". More precisely, SHA financing agents are institutional units that manage one or more financing schemes. The transactions are executed by the financing agents, according to the rules of the financing schemes.

Financing agents serve as key statistical units in producing national health accounts. While financing schemes are the key units for analysing how the consumption of health care goods and services is financed, the data concerning the relevant transactions are collected either from the financing agents that operate the different financing schemes or from the providers.

The concept of "healthcare financing schemes" in SHA is an application and extension of the concept of "social protection schemes" defined by the European System of Social PROtection Statistics (ESSPROS):  "a distinct body of rules, supported by one or more institutional units, governing the provision of social protection benefits and their financing ...". The social protection scheme is the statistical unit in ESSPROS. It is an analytical unit that allows describing the complete structure of the social protection financing system:  expenditure and receipts.

According to SHA Manual 2011, "the key concepts for describing the structure of the health care financing system are based on measuring: (a) the expenditure of health care financing schemes, under which goods and services are purchased directly from health care providers, on the one hand, and (b) the types of revenues of health care financing schemes, on the other hand.  

Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1901  and (prior Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/359) limits its scope to the collection of data on the expenditure of health care financing schemes.

SHA focuses on the consumption of health care goods and services by the resident population irrespective of where this takes place. This implies the inclusion of imports (from non-resident providers) and the exclusion of exports (health care goods and services provided to non-residents).

Spain.

Health care expenditure data are annual data, corresponding to the calendar year.

This quality report covers the following reference years: 2003-2022.

The sources to compile the data on health care expenditure are mainly administrative and register-based data, only a small percentage of the figures come from surveys or other means. Accordingly, for the health care expenditure data collection, accuracy deals with problems of coverage as the main possible source of errors.

Current expenditure data are presented according to following units:

  • expenditure amount in millions of euro;
  • expenditure amount in millions of national currency;
  • expenditure amount in millions of PPS;
  • percentage of GDP;
  • amount in euro per capita;
  • amount in national currency per capita;
  • amount in PPS per capita;
  • percentage of current health expenditure (CHE).

Estimation methods:

SHA variable(s) Main method Brief description of methodology
Distribution of HF.1 by HC/HP Pro-rating/Utilisation key The data of Public Health Expenditure Statistics is distributed by HC and HP using the information provided by a health expenditure functional breakdown distribution survey carried out on a sample of Regional Health Services.
Distribution of HF.2 by HC.1-HC.3/HP Pro-rating/Utilisation key The data of National Accounts data on spending in hospital services is distributed by HC.1-HC.3 and HP using the information provided by the Hospital Statistics.
Distribution of HF.3 by HC.1.3/HP Pro-rating/Utilisation key The data of National Accounts data on spending in medical services is distributed by HC.1.3 and HP using the information provided by the Household Budget Survey.
Distribution of HF.3 by HC.4/HP Pro-rating/Utilisation key The data of National Accounts data on spending in paramedical services is distributed by HC.4 and HP using the information provided by the Household Budget Survey.
Distribution of HF.3 by HC.5.2/HP.5.2 Pro-rating/Utilisation key The data of National Accounts data on spending in therapeutic equipment and material is distributed by HC.5.2 and HP.5.2 using the information provided by the Household Budget Survey.

Administrative and statistical data sources:

Source name Brief description of source Type of data source Primary SHA variable(s) using this data source Time period covered by this data source Timeliness
(Number of months after the end of the accounting period)
Frequency Processing
Public Health Expenditure Statistics Spending financed by National Health System Public administrative records HF.1 2003-2022 16 months Annual HC and HP split up using secondary sources
National Accounts Spending financed by private sector Other HF.2 and HF.3 2003-2022 16 months Annual HC and HP split up using secondary sources
Social services for old people Long term care Other HC.3 2003-2022 16 months Annual  

Annual

Member States were required to transmit their data to Eurostat in compliance with the Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/359 transmission deadlines, until reference year 2020. As of reference year 2021, data are transmitted pursuant to Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1901.
Data and reference metadata for the reference year T should be transmitted to Eurostat by 30 April T+2.

Not applicable.

Breaks in time series (resulting from methodological changes):

Year Items affected by the break Explanations
2008 HF.2.2 Changes in the accounting base are introduced in the Spanish National Accounts by the National Statistics Institute periodically. This leads to a break in series of NPISH spending in 2008 because supply and use tables of the input-output framework were not updated with the changes of the basis.
2003 All From 2003 onwards, the series includes most of the SHA functional classification creating a break in series. Long-term care is the most important element in the series break, since it leads to an increase in the total current expenditure figure. From 2003 onwards, public expenditure has been estimated on an accrual basis.
1999 All Start of SHA-based reporting.

Data according to SHA 2011 is available from 2003 to 2022 and comparable over this period. Only the break of HF.2.2 (ISFLSH financing schemes) occurs in 2008.