OECD highlights rising cost of healthcare and pharma spending

A new report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said that rising healthcare costs are causing concern in almost all developed countries.

The report states that healthcare costs have risen rapidly in recent years after rising broadly in line with economic growth between 1992 and 1997.

The report adds that spending on pharmaceuticals is outstripping the growth in total health expenditure, and has risen by more than a third in real terms since 1997.

Pharmaceuticals are “an important driver in the overall rise in total health spending”, the OECD said.

The rise in obesity has been attributed to some of the increase. Figures for the United States suggest the cost of healthcare is 36 per cent higher for the obese and the cost of medications 77 per cent higher.

The report reveals that healthcare spending now accounts for 8.8 per cent of gross domestic product on average across OECD countries, 15 per cent in the US, and between 5.6 and 6.5 per cent even in the lowest spending countries of Korea, Slovakia, Mexico and Poland.

© Adfero Ltd