Schwerin (dpa/mv) – Health expenditure in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania rose sharply in 2020. As the state statistical office announced in Schwerin on Thursday, total expenditure on treatments and preventive care climbed to a record 8.8 billion euros in the first year of the corona pandemic. That was 6.5 percent more than in 2019. The cost increase in the northeast was exactly in line with the national average. Hamburg recorded the largest increase with 8.4 percent.
In terms of health expenditure per inhabitant, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, at EUR 5,480, was around EUR 180 above the national average and ranked fourth in a comparison of the federal states. Within ten years, the per capita expenditure for medical and therapeutic care in the north-east increased by almost 1600 euros or 43 percent.
Health expenditure in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania now corresponds to 18.8 percent of gross domestic product. The proportion is only slightly higher in Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg. In 2020, health expenditure made up 13.1 percent of gross domestic product nationwide, in economically strong federal states such as Hamburg or Bavaria the share was between 8 and 11 percent.
According to the statistics office, health expenditure includes all purchases of goods and services made for prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and care, including costs for administration and investments. Nationwide, healthcare spending in 2020 totaled 440.6 billion euros. Almost 55 percent of them were covered by statutory health insurance. Long-term care insurance contributed 10.7 percent, with the remainder coming from private health insurance companies, private households and organizations, and the state.
