Source: World Health Organization
Processing and comments: Open Data Albania
In 2004 it was spent an average of 6,597 ALL from the State Budget for health, for every inhabitant of Albania and since then, the level has generally been increasing. Its trend has been influenced by the growth of health budget, the growing collection of health insurance contributions and the reduction of the population from year to year. 2010 and 2013 are the years with the lowest increase of health expenditure per capita as a result of the reduction of the budget of the Ministry of Health. The negative effect of the shrinking funds for this ministry on health per capita could be eliminated by the increased revenue from health insurance and the decrease the population.
Years 2007, 2009 and 2011 stand out for their high growth of health spending per capita, scoring the respectively values of 8,981 ALL (+16.84%), 11,062 ALL (+13.74%) and 12,447 ALL (+12.04%). After this year, health expenditures per capita have grown modestly, while remaining within the limit of 13,000 ALL. The exception is the forecast for 2014, with an expected significant increase of this indicator, with 9.14%. Thus, the level of health spending per capita is thought to reach 14,109 ALL, 1,182 ALL more than in 2013 and 1,350 ALL more than in 2012. Compared with 10 years ago (2004), Albania is spending from its budget 2.1 times more per capita on health.
The challenge to increase health funding per capita in 2014 remains to be verified, since it depends upon whether the budget will achieve the anticipated fiscal parameters and whether their non-realization will be accompanied by the financing contraction of priority sectors, including also health, as has occurred in previous years during budget review. The risk for the realization of this objective in 2014 is still higher if kept in mind that the increase in health spending per capita is based primarily on revenue growth of health insurance and not by increasing the budget of the Ministry of Health. The chart below shows the over years performance of health spending per capita, the Ministry of Health budget, income from health insurance contributions and population.
Source: World Health Organization
Processing and comments: Open Data Albania
Of special interest is the comparison of health spending per capita from Albania to other countries in the region. The following chart provides an overview of this indicator, expressed according to the Purchasing Power Parity, in current dollars.
Source: World Health Organization
Processing and comments: Open Data Albania
As can be seen, until 2012, Albania has been constantly the country with the sensitively lowest expenditure of the central budget for health per capita, in the entire region. In 2012, according to the World Health Organization, Albania has spent an average of $ 258 per capita, while the second place behind, held from Macedonia spend two-times more, $ 535. The gap is deepened if compared with Montenegro, which spends 2.3 times more, or $ 535 per capita, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2.56 times more or $ 660) and Serbia (3 times more or $ 704).
Below there is a table of information on health expenditure per capita based on the data of the State Budget in years and beyond, at regional level.
Source: World Health Organization
Processing and comments: Open Data Albania