Luxembourg spends 5.8 per cent of its budget on preventive health care
CDC, Unsplash
Eurostat has presented data on preventive healthcare expenditure in the EU for 2022. On average, €202 per person was allocated to preventive healthcare, which is 6% less than in 2021 (€216 per person). This decrease is explained by the fact that in 2021 the share of expenditure on preventive medicine reached a record 6.1% due to active measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, this figure has adjusted to 5.5 per cent of total medical expenditure.
Luxembourg is above the EU average for funding preventive medicine, spending €286 per person. Although this is noticeably more than most EU countries, Luxembourg is behind countries such as Germany (€458), Austria (€411) and the Netherlands (€312). At the same time, it is well ahead of the countries with the lowest expenditure on preventive health care, including Poland (€22), Romania (€24) and Bulgaria (€31).
As a percentage, Luxembourg spends about 5.8 per cent of the total health budget on preventive measures, which is close to the EU average (5.5 per cent). However, despite its relatively high spending, it lags behind Germany (7.9%), Austria (7.4%) and Finland (6.4%), where preventive health care occupies a larger share of the medical system.
Preventive health care costs include vaccination, screening programmes, early disease diagnosis, health promotion, and health education. During the COVID-19 pandemic, much of this spending was directed at controlling the virus, but after 2021, funding began to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Luxembourg pays particular attention to cancer prevention, including screening programmes for breast, bowel and cervical cancer. Measures to prevent cardiovascular disease, combat obesity and promote the avoidance of bad habits are also being actively developed.
The highest share of spending on prevention in 2022 is recorded in Germany (7.9% of all medical spending), Austria (7.4%) and Finland (6.4%). At the same time, Malta (1.2%), Poland (1.9%) and Slovakia (2.0%) spend minimal funds on prevention, indicating significant differences in the approach to disease prevention.
Although Luxembourg is among the EU countries with relatively high expenditure on preventive health care, there is a need for further investment in early diagnosis, vaccination and healthy lifestyle programmes. In the long term, this will reduce the burden on the healthcare system by reducing the number of patients with chronic diseases requiring expensive treatment.
The Eurostat data was published as part of World Cancer Day, which is celebrated on 4 February to raise awareness of cancer prevention and early diagnosis. Luxembourg, like many other EU countries, continues to invest in health promotion, but maintaining and increasing the budget for preventive measures remains an important challenge for the future.
