Healthcare in Europe

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

European Health Insurance Card (French version pictured)

Healthcare in Europe is provided through a wide range of different systems run at individual national levels. Most European countries have a system of tightly regulated, competing private health insurance companies, with government subsidies available for citizens who cannot afford coverage.[1][2] Many European countries (and all European Union countries) offer their citizens a European Health Insurance Card which, on a reciprocal basis, provides insurance for emergency medical treatment insurance when visiting other participating European countries.[3]

European health

EU countries with the highest life expectancy (2019)[4]
World
Rank
EU
Rank
Country Life expectancy
at birth (years)
5. 1. Spain 83.4
6. 2. Italy 83.4
11. 3. Sweden 82.7
12. 4. France 82.5
13. 5. Malta 82.4
16. 6. Ireland 82.1
17. 7. Netherlands 82.1
19. 8. Luxembourg 82.1
20. 9. Greece 82.1

The World Health Organization has listed 53 countries as comprising the European region. Health outcomes vary greatly by country. Countries in western Europe have had a significant increase in life expectancy since World War II, while most of eastern Europe and the former Soviet countries have experienced a decrease in life expectancy.[5]

Tobacco use is the largest preventable cause of death in Europe. Many countries have passed legislation in the past few decades restricting tobacco sales and use.[5] According to the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) conducted between 2013 and 2015, substantial inequalities existed in terms of sex, age and education level concerning the proportion of adults who were daily smokers of cigarettes.[6]

European Union

The

Directorate-General for Health and Consumers however seeks to align national laws on the safety of food and other products, on consumers' rights, and on the protection of people's health, to form new EU wide laws and thus strengthen its internal markets.[citation needed
]

Both the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control are involved in public health development in Europe.[7]

COVID-19 pandemic

The

health professionals is one of the most important variables in reducing the number of deaths.[8] Healthcare spending in the EU was 10.9% of GDP in 2020, up one percentage point from 2019. The governments in various countries pay for a major portion of these expenses.[9][10][11]

Response

The emergence of the Coronavirus has upended life as we know it in various European Union countries. In responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, public health infrastructures and resources, governmental, and cultural values all play a key role in stopping the threat. Finding an approach that balances effectiveness, efficiency, and successful response to the pandemic is the key to ending the crisis.

European Union countries like Greece and Sweden have similar populations and sizes. They have a difficult cultural and political stance. The government response of various European countries to the pandemic was to stay home and slow down the spread of the virus. It was proactive in closing businesses and stores early on and even before the first COVID-19 death. The governmental response including the banning of all international non-essential travel and COVID-19 lockdowns helped to keep the death toll to a minimum.[12]

In comparison, the government response to

COVID-19 in Sweden was much less stringent than in Greece. The government of Sweden focused on guidelines that encourage all citizens to take personal responsibility in containing the virus. The Public Health Agency of Sweden proposed a ban on gatherings over 500 people, including social distancing. The key concept proposed was solidarity through individual responsibility with all Swedish citizens obeying the guidelines.[13]

survival rates from COVID-19 contrasted between Sweden and Greece. The Europeans focused strictly on medical protocols and technical expertise from the medical field. This caused a fundamental collapse of the healthcare system, needless deaths, and a misinformed and distrusting public that demanded more accountability from the European Union members, the government, and health professionals. With a similar population of 10 million people and other issues aside. As of 10 December 2021, there have been 18,982 deaths in Greece and 15,152 deaths in Sweden.[14]

Life expectancy

There is a big gap between genders in

Life expectancy has risen from

healthcare and medicine. Since the 1960s studies and statistics have shown a rise in life expectancy by a pair of numbers per decade. However, from 2019 to 2020 a slight increase in life expectancy occurred by about 0.2 yrs. Nonetheless, in 2020 a drastic decrease in life expectancy occurred by about - 1.75. This occurred only in some states of Europe because of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a new study published by the Smithsonian Magazine by the author Ridhi Kashyap, an associate professor of social demography at the University of Oxford.[citation needed
]

The decrease in life expectancy has been a dramatic one, which is known to be the biggest decrease in life expectancy compared to World War II. The explanation given is because due to the poor life expectancy already occurring in the European Union, COVID-19 made it worse, decreasing life expectancy and causing more deaths.[16]

Vaccination rates

Vaccines are a powerful tool being used nationwide against COVID-19. At the beginning of the

medical help.[17]

Due to the high demand on

vaccinated the less likely it is for the virus to spread. Although this has so far been successful, a substantial number of Europeans in every community are still not vaccinated. The fact that there are constantly new variants does not help because we must keep up with new statistics. In Europe, there is a limited number of vaccinations that are being offered for the people. The European center for the disease has been closely monitoring the effectiveness of each vaccine. Europe has since taken precautions to distribute vaccines safely and effectively across the country.[18]

Spending

Expand the OECD charts below to see the breakdown:

  • "Government/compulsory": Government spending and compulsory health insurance.
  • "Voluntary": Voluntary health insurance and private funds such as households’ out-of-pocket payments, NGOs and private corporations.
  • They are represented by columns starting at zero. They are not stacked. The 2 are combined to get the total.
  • At the source you can run your cursor over the columns to get the year and the total for that country.[19]
  • Click the table tab at the source to get 3 lists (one after another) of amounts by country: "Total", "Government/compulsory", and "Voluntary".[19]
Health spending by country. Percent of GDP (Gross domestic product). For example: 11.2% for Canada in 2022. 16.6% for the United States in 2022.[19]
Total healthcare cost per person. Public and private spending. US dollars PPP. For example: $6,319 for Canada in 2022. $12,555 for the US in 2022.[19]

Spending and life expectancy

See: List of countries by life expectancy and List of countries by total health expenditure per capita.

Life expectancy vs healthcare spending of rich OECD countries. US average of $10,447 in 2018.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ Sanger-Katz, Margot (19 February 2019). "What's the Difference Between a 'Public Option' and 'Medicare for All'?". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Abelson, Reed; Sanger-Katz, Margot (23 March 2019). "Medicare for All Would Abolish Private Insurance. 'There's No Precedent in American History.'". The New York Times.
  3. ^ "European Health Insurance Card". European Commission. Retrieved 23 August 2019. A free card that gives you access to medically necessary, state-provided healthcare during a temporary stay in any of the 28 EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, under the same conditions and at the same cost (free in some countries) as people insured in that country.
  4. ^ "2019 Human Development Index Ranking | Human Development Reports". hdr.undp.org. Archived from the original on 23 May 2020. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  5. ^
    S2CID 36761194
    .
  6. ^ "Tobacco consumption statistics". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  7. ^ "European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)". www.euro.who.int.
  8. S2CID 235729576
    .
  9. ^ "Global expenditure on health: Public spending on the rise" (PDF).
  10. ^ Bank, European Investment (2 February 2023). "Health Overview 2023". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. ^ "How much did governments spend on health in 2020?". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  12. S2CID 234309582
    .
  13. .
  14. .
  15. ^ Janssen, Fanny (6 July 2021). "Future life expectancy in Europe taking into account the impact of smoking, obesity, and alcohol". eLife.
  16. ^ Wetzel, Corryn (29 September 2021). "In Western Europe, Covid-19 Caused the Biggest Drop in Life Expectancy Since World War II". Smithsonian.com.
  17. ^ "Questions and answers on COVID-19: Vaccines". European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. European Commission. 21 October 2021.
  18. ^ Charles, Michel (18 November 2021). "COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic: the EU's response". Consilium.
  19. ^ . 2 bar charts: For both: From bottom menus: Countries menu > choose OECD. Check box for "latest data available". Perspectives menu > Check box to "compare variables". Then check the boxes for government/compulsory, voluntary, and total. Click top tab for chart (bar chart). For GDP chart choose "% of GDP" from bottom menu. For per capita chart choose "US dollars/per capita". Click fullscreen button above chart. Click "print screen" key. Click top tab for table, to see data.
  20. ^ Link between health spending and life expectancy: US is an outlier. May 26, 2017. By Max Roser at Our World in Data. Click the sources tab under the chart for info on the countries, healthcare expenditures, and data sources. See the later version of the chart here.

External links