Rate of health-care spending in Hungary is twice the OECD average

Average health-care spending has increased in Hungary by almost twice as much as the OECD average, the state secretary of the human resources ministry said on Wednesday, citing OECD data. Wage hikes in the Hungarian sector have played a key role, he said.

While the rate in the increase of health-care spending was 1.4 percent on average in the OECD countries in recent years, the rate in Hungary was 2.7 percent, Bence Rétvári told MTI, referring to the Health at a Glance 2017 report released by OECD in November last year.

Out of the 35 OECD  countries, the rate of health-care spending growth was higher than in Hungary in only five other countries, he said.

He said that phased wage hikes had been a key component of increasing health-care spending in Hungary, noting that over the past 16 months alone the wage of health-care professionals had gone up by 53 percent.

Source: MTI