Recent trends in social spending as an element of public spending and household spending on health

The first section of this chapter looks at traditional measures of social spending that show how it ranks within total public spending in the framework of the economic cycle and the way it is distributed among the different sectors. The other sections look in greater detail at the changes in public spending on health over time, patterns in out-of-pocket household expenditure on health and projections of the health expenditure needs arising from population ageing in the region.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development