HC Deb 05 July 1976 vol 914 cc438-9W
Mr. Knox

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the per capita spending on health services in each year since 1960 in the United Kingdom; and, from information available from international sources, if he will give comparable figures for each of the other EEC countries, Canada and the United States of America.

Dr. Owen

Expenditure on health care is not recorded on a strictly comparable basis in the national accounts of the various EEC countries, Canada and the USA and there are widely varying definitions of "health services". There are therefore serious difficulties in expressing such expenditure on aper capita basis so as to allow meaningful comparisons to be drawn.

The publication "National Accounts of OECD countries—1962 to 1973" gives complete figures of expenditure (public and private) on health services only for the USA and Italy and then only for some of the years rekuired.

U.S.A. $ (per capita) Italy Lira
1960 N.A. N.A.
1961 N.A. N.A.
1962 N.A. 20,400
1963 N.A. 24,600
1964 N.A. 29,100
1965 N.A. 32,900
1966 N.A. 37,000
1967 N.A. 41,700
1968 243 45,500
1969 271 51,100
1970 301 60,800
1971 331 67,300
1972 364 77,700
1973 397 90,500

(per capita) United Kingdom*
£
1960–61 18.2
1961–62 18.8
1962–63 19.6
1963–64 21.1
1964–65 23.0
1965–66 25.2
1966–67 27.4
1967–68 29.9
1968–69 31.9
1969–70 33.6
1970–71 39.1
1971–72 43.9
1972–73 49.9
1973–74 56.4
1974–75 74.1
* Public expenditure only.

Forward to