Glossary:Joint health accounts data collection
The Joint health accounts data collection is an initiative by Eurostat, OECD, and the World Health Organization (WHO) to cooperate on gathering statistics on health expenditure to:
- reduce the burden of data collection on national authorities;
- increase the use of international standards and definitions for health expenditure data;
- further encourage harmonisation of national health accounting practices in order to improve the availability and comparability of data.
The resulting joint questionnaire is based on a detailed set of classifications of the System of health accounts (SHA) developed for OECD member countries. Two additional questions relate to data on sources of funding and human resources costs. Several additional memorandum items, considered important from a health policy perspective, have also been added.
The third joint health accounts (SHA) collection, conducted in 2008, validated health expenditure data for 21 OECD countries and two OECD candidate countries. The main findings include:
- total health expenditure as a percentage of GDP, 2003-2006;
- total health expenditure in USD PPP, 2003-2006;
- current health expenditure by healthcare function, 2006;
- current health expenditure by healthcare provider, 2006;
- current health expenditure by healthcare financing, 2006.