Albanian families spent 467 million euros on health in 2023

2024-10-22 07:26:00, Ekonomi CNA

The expenses of Albanians for health are increasing year after year. INSTAT data on the final consumption of families in 2023 show that health expenses reached a value of 46.7 billion lek, or 467 million euros, with an increase of about 64% compared to 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out.

In the last 6 years, the average expenditure on health has resulted in over 34 billion ALL per year, but in 2020 they decreased due to isolation measures and the postponement of examinations and treatments for diagnoses that were not related to Covid-19. As the country's population is shrinking, household spending on health is rising.

Experts claim that a series of factors are leading to the increase in health spending, but the main one is the increase in the burden of disease in the population. High air pollution, sedentary life, malnutrition are affecting the spread of non-communicable diseases. On the other hand, the aging of the population increasingly increases the need for health services.

Previous studies have shown that the population over 65 suffers from more than two chronic diseases. Diabetes and diseases related to blood circulation have become a pandemic.

Data from the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund show that the burden of chronic diseases in the population is increasing by an average of 5% annually.

The Covid-19 pandemic affected even more, as in many affected it created arthritis, damaged the kidneys and other vital organs that require lifelong treatment.

As Albanian families' spending on health is increasing, public policies are not helping to ease the financial burden, as funds for drug reimbursement are not moving at the same pace.

For nearly a decade, the drug reimbursement budget has remained almost stagnant, at a time when budget revenues have doubled and the financial resources of the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund (MFISF) have increased.

In 2013, the expenses for drug reimbursement were 2.1% of the total budget expenses, while in 2024 this ratio worsened, since they occupy only 1.6% of the total budget expenses.

From 2019 to 2024, the budget of FSDKSH (the structure that finances public health services) has increased by about 40%, while the item of reimbursement of medications only 20%, according to official data. In 2019, the reimbursement fund accounted for 24% of the total expenses of FSKDSH, while in 2024 only 20.6%./ Monitor Magazine