Statistics Norway 

Division for National Accounts 

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).

Healthcare expenditure is recorded in relation to the international classification for health accounts (ICHA) defining:

• healthcare expenditure by financing schemes (ICHA-HF) — which classifies the types of financing arrangements through which people obtain health services; health care financing schemes include direct payments by households for services and goods and third-party financing arrangements;
• healthcare expenditure by function (ICHA-HC) — which details the split in healthcare expenditure following the purpose of healthcare activities — such as, curative care, rehabilitative care, long-term care, or preventive care;
• healthcare expenditure by provider (ICHA-HP) — which classifies units contributing to the provision of healthcare goods and services — such as hospitals, residential facilities, ambulatory health care services, ancillary services or retailers of medical goods.

1. Household individual consumption on health, including the collective consumption with two exceptions:

i. Occupational health care (intermediate consumption within establishments) minus an estimated share of occupational health in health providers’ and other medical industries net administration;
ii.“Remunerated” unpaid household production in the form of transfer payments (social benefits in cash) for home care of sick, disabled and elderly persons provided by family members.
SHA 2011 Manual recommends following the standard System of National Account (SNA) rules for drawing the production boundary of health care services, albeit with two notable exceptions:
- Occupational health care is included in the national totals of health care spending. In SNA, this item is recorded as ancillary services and part of intermediate production of enterprises and
- Part of the cash transfers to private households for care givers of home care for the sick and disabled are treated as the paid household production of health care.

2. Health care financing schemes:

HF1 Government schemes and compulsory contributory health care financing schemes;
HF2 -voluntary health care payment schemes;
HF3 - Household out-of-pocket payment;
HF4 - rest of the world financing schemes.

3. NACE rev. 2, section Q, human health and social work activities.

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).

The figures include mainland Norway and Svalbard. 

Data are available from 1997 to 2022. 

The reference year for fixed price figures is 2015. 

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)

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

This quality report covers the following reference years: 2017 to 2022

Countries submit data to Eurostat on the basis of Commission Regulations (EU): 

• 2015/359 of 4 March 2015 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on healthcare expenditure and financing, until the reference year 2020.
• 2021/1901 of 29 October 2021 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on health care expenditure and financing, for which the first reference year will be in 2021.

The implementing Regulations specify the areas and the level of aggregation to be submitted by EU Member States and EEA countries (see Annex II of the Regulation).

Data collection takes place in agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recitals 23-27, 31-32 and Articles 20-26) applies.

To ensure statistical confidentiality rules are applied. All data treatment is done in a digital enviroment with a high level of security. The participants in the data treatment do not disclose details or figures before the figures are published.

The health accounts figures are normally published medio March. 

Please refer to the Release calendar - Eurostat (europa.eu) and publicly available on the Eurostat’s website.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

Annual

The health accounts are published alongside a news article on the SSB website.

The following link contains the articles published on the SSB website: Artikler om helseregnskap – SSB

When publishing the Health Accounts, we publish an article on the SSB website presenting the results and putting the figures into an international perspective. We present the total health expenditure as a share of Mainland GDP and total GDP. 

The shares of the main categories of HC are presented. The health expenditure as a share of GDP is compared to equivalent figures in other OECD countries. 

The following link contains the articles published on the SSB website: Artikler om helseregnskap – SSB

The data are published in the following database on Statistics Norway's website: Helseregnskap. Statistikkbanken (ssb.no)

Not applicable.

Not applicable. 

The GNI inventory comprises documentation of relevant health figures in the national accounts which the health accounts are based on. 

Link to the GNI inventory: Norwegian National Accounts - GNI Inventory for ESA 2010 – SSB

The GNI inventory comprises documentation of relevant health figures in the national accounts which the health accounts are based on. 

Link to the GNI inventory: Norwegian National Accounts - GNI Inventory for ESA 2010 – SSB

Authorities responsible for SHA data collection work to ensure that the statistical practices used to compile national health accounts are in compliance with SHA methodological requirements and that good practices in the field are being followed, according to the methodology underlined in the SHA 2011 Manual and European Statistics Code of Practice respecting professional independence of the statistical authorities. Procedures are in place to plan and monitor the quality of the health care expenditure statistical production process.

The Norwegian health accounts are compiled using several different statistical sources. The statistical sources consist of data from establishments, enterprises, and households. In addition, different administrative registers are used. The uncertainty in the national accounts estimates is related to the errors in source data and the compilation methods. Uncertainty connected to the different statistical sources is usually described as part of the documentation of the sources. Several of the statistical sources used in the compilation of the national accounts remain preliminary for longer periods, as they require extensive analysis and numerous revisions before the final figures are known.

The final figures are of higher quality than the preliminary figures in the health accounts. There may, however, be some uncertainty left in the final figures. There may be uncertainty related to supply and use of health services from NPISH. We also believe that there is a possibility that we do not capture all expenditure related to medication in HC.5.1.1-5.1.2. While we consider the quality of the health accounts as generally high, we expect the quality to be higher after the main revision of the health accounts in 2025 is conducted.

The main users of health care expenditure data are policy makers, research institutes, media, and students.

We do not have any measures to determine user satisfaction other than through user contact.

There are several SHA categories that are missing in our health accounts. These are the following:

• HC.6.2 - Immunisation programmes;
• HC.6.3 - Early disease detection programmes;
• HC.7.2 - Administration of health financing;
• HF.2.1 - Voluntary health insurance schemes;
• HF.2.2 - NPISH financing schemes;
• HP.8.1 - Households as providers of home health care.

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. 

There should be no sampling errors in the Norwegian health accounts. 

Survey data is not used as input in the health accounts. 

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.

Due to capacity issues the data deliveries have been delayed the last couple of years.

Not applicable.

There are som breaks in the time series of some variables. 

The breaks will be described with the following structure: Year - Items affected by the break - Explanation 

2017 - HC.5.1.1 and HC.5.1.2 - Based on information from the Norwegian Pharmacy Association, we are now able to split between prescribed and over-the-counter medicines. When publishing preliminary figures for 2020, we were not able to split HC.5.1.1 and HC.5.1.2. However, when publishing the final figures for 2020 in 2023, we were able to split the two subcategories. 

2015 - HC.1.3.3 and HC.1.3.9 - Outpatient curative care services provided by paramedical and other health practitioners that are not physicians were previously included in HC.1.3.3, but are now in HC.1.3.9

2013 - HC.5.1 and HC.5.2 produced by HP.1.1 - The amount previously recorded under HC.5.1xHP.1.1 and HC.5.2xHP.1.1 were wrong, and are now recorded under HC.1, in HC.1.3.3, HP.1.1 and HF.3

2013 - HC.3.1, HC.3.4, HP.2, HP.2.1, HP.3, HP.3.5 - Some of the expenditure previously recorded under HC.3.1xHP.2.1 are now recorded under HC.3.4xHP.3.5

2012 - HC.4, HC.4.1, HC.4.3 - A new method for the allocation of overhead costs was implemented in the hospital accounts in 2012. Some of the overhead costs are now allocated to laboratory services (HC.4.1) and patient transportation (HC.4.3)

2011 - HC.1.3.1, HC.1.3.3, HC.5.1.3, HC.5.2, HP.3.3, HP.4, HP.5.1, HP.5.2, HP.6 - Due to switch from SHA 1.0 to SHA 2011, a number of health spending items were reallocated 

2011 - HP.1.2 - Some previously excluded health expenditure items relating to mental health hospitals (HP.1.2) were identified from the National Accounts and are included from 2011. 

2001 - All items - Break in time series, due to new source from local government (KOSTRA).

1997 - All items - Break in time series, due to the implementation of System of Health Accounts.

The health accounts are coherent with the national accounts. The final figures are consistent with the annual national accounts. The use tables are used to calculate values for the different SHA categories. For the preliminary figures information from the QNA (and other sources i.e. GFS) are used in the estimation process.

Each set of outputs in the health accounts should be internally consistent. To make sure that this is the case we try to do tests in our files. In many cases there are only rounding errors. 

We do not have available information on this area. 

The following is our general revision policy:   

T-3: Final estimates. Based on final annual national accounts.

T-2: Preliminary estimates are based on preliminary annual national accounts, and will be revised the next year. 

In recent years we have published the health accounts with revisions as decribed in 17.1, with the exception of this year where we did not have the capacity to submit updated figures. 

The sources of the data are the following:

• Hospital Accounts: The hospital statistics cover all general and specialized hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, convalescence and rehabilitation institutions, ambulance service, operating agreements with private specialists and clinical psychologists and specialized substance abuse institutions. The hospitals/institutions are covered whether they are public, private or non-profit institutions. 
• Central government fiscal account, revenues and expenditures: This account provides detailed data on several figures relevant for the SHA, such as transfers to health care providers and transfers in kind. Revenue and expenditure are classified in main groups by type of transaction, whether services are offered in return or not, and what kind of economic function the individual transaction has.
• KOSTRA ("Municipality-State-Reporting"): KOSTRA is a reporting system developed for reporting data from local to central government. The data from KOSTRA is reported according to similar principles as the hospitals accounts. The data for economic transactions are broken down by:

1. Type of function, such as maternal or child health care, dental care, basic medical and diagnostic services etc.
2. Type of expenditure, like salaries and and other production costs, investments, transfers by recipients etc.

• National accounts supply and use tables: Relevant data from the national accounts supply and use tables is reorganised and utilised in the health accounts.
• Statistics from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health: The report includes total pharmaceutical expenditure. The report is released every year. 

Annual.

Data are collected through the joint health accounts questionnaire (JHAQ) that is submitted to Eurostat during the annual data collection exercise. There is a voluntary deadline to send the JHAQ questionnaire for the calendar year T by the 31st of March T+2. The joint health accounts questionnaire (JHAQ) is coordinated in agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These three international organisations are known collectively as the International Health Accounts Team (IHAT). Data are submitted to Eurostat based on Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/359 of 4 March 2015 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on healthcare expenditure and financing, until reference year 2020. As of reference year 2021 onwards Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1901 of 29 October 2021 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008, is in force.

The 2023 JHAQ includes a number of features which allow national data correspondents to perform various quality checks before submitting the data. The embedded programmes allow the verification of:

1- Consistency of the data between tables,
This step checks if the marginal totals reported in each table of the JHAQ are consistent across all tables. For example, for each function (HC), the total across all financing schemes (HF) in the HCxHF table has to be equal to the total across all providers (HP) in the HCxHP table, i.e. the values in the column “All HF” in the HCxHF table have to be equal to the values in the column “All HP” in the HCxHP table. Any detected differences are flagged up in the corresponding row or column in the relevant tables and all inconsistencies are listed in the “Report” worksheet by variable code together with the amount by which the respective variable differs between the two compared tables. A positive value indicates that the first listed table has a higher value for the same variable, and vice versa.

2- Consistency of the data within tables,
Any detected inconsistencies are listed by variable code together with an indication of which total is not equal to the sum of its subcomponents as well as the numerical difference. A positive figure indicates that the total is greater than the reported sub-components, and vice versa.

• The presence of negative values,

Entries in the tables cannot be negative as they refer to the consumption of goods and services.
If an individual data table is checked for internal consistency, the negative values check is performed for the relevant table and then any negative values are highlighted red and crossed out.

• The presence of atypical entries,

The atypical entries check provides information whether the data tables contain values in cells which are – if at all – only reported by very few countries and are thus atypical for health accounting.
If an individual data table is checked for internal consistency, the atypical entries check is performed for the relevant table. In the data tables, any cell containing an atypical entry will be highlighted for national data providers.
Should any atypical entries be identified, compilers should scrutinize in detail the transactions that led to entries in those cells and assess whether the accounting rules of SHA have been correctly applied. If they come to the conclusion that the transactions are recorded in the correct categories of the ICHA classifications, then the corresponding atypical entries represent unique – and correctly accounted for – features of the country’s health system. In this case a short description of the nature of the transactions should be included in the accompanying Metadata file under “II.3. Atypical entries”.
If, on the other hand, compilers come to the conclusion that the transactions are not recorded correctly, then they need to make adjustments in the concerned tables. In case the transactions recorded in a cell do not belong to the boundaries of SHA (e.g. they refer to intermediate consumption) the value of the respective cell should be deleted (and all cells that are affected by this change adjusted accordingly). In case the transactions are misreported and another category of the ICHA classification is more appropriate, the value of the cell should be transferred to the correct cell of the table.

3- The growth rates against the previous year and the magnitude of revisions as compared to previously submitted data. Results are grouped into three different categories:

• Breaks in series (the current questionnaire shows no data for an item that is not null in the other file)
• Newly reported (the current questionnaire contains data for an item that is empty in the other file)
• Differences (all other types of differences)

Weighting is used for some of the national accounts products that are used in the health accounts.

One example is the national accounts product 861002 (somatic hospital services, central government consumption), which is assigned weights of 0.717, 0.071 and 0.212 to the HC categories of 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3.3, respectively. The assignment of the weights is based on DRG (Diagnosis Related Groups) points.

No specific procedures are employed.

We do not have further comments.