Britain's spending on healthcare next to lowest among G7 countries

Britain's spending of healthcare is next to bottom among G7 countries, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Tuesday.

New internationally-comparable health accounts published in London by ONS show Britain's total healthcare spending in the latest review year, 2014, was 220 billion U.S. dollars, or 9.9 percent of GDP.

ONS said as a percentage of GDP, Britain spent less on healthcare than the United States, Japan, France and Germany and a similar percentage to Canada. The U.S. spent the most on healthcare as a percentage of GDP at 16.6 percent.

Out of the G7 group of countries, only Italy spent a smaller percentage of GDP on healthcare (9.1 percent) than Britain in 2014, said ONS.

All of the G7 nations, including Britain, spent a higher proportion of their GDP on healthcare than the average of 9 percent for OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.

The ONS report said among OECD countries, life expectancy tends to be longer in countries that spend more per person, on healthcare, however, this is not always the case.

While the U.S. outspent Britain on healthcare per person in 2014, average life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was 78.8, compared with 81.4 in Britain, said ONS.

"Despite spending, by far, the largest amount on healthcare, the U.S. was among the 10 OECD countries with the lowest life expectancy," said the ONS report, adding: "A range of factors can influence life expectancy including social influences, socio-economic factors, and spending on healthcare."

Italy spent the least per person and had the second highest life expectancy, while France and Germany spent more per person on healthcare than Britain but only France had a higher life expectancy.

Healthcare expenditure in Britain principally financed through government revenues, amount to almost 80 percent of all health spending. Privately financed healthcare was a much smaller component of healthcare spending in Britain, accounting for around one-fifth of total expenditure.

Private health insurance accounted for just 3.6 percent of total healthcare expenditure in Britain, much less than in France and Canada, where it represented a much larger proportion of healthcare expenditure.

The U.S., says ONS, is the only G7 country where less than half of healthcare expenditure is financed through government or compulsory insurance schemes. Instead, the U.S. healthcare system relies more heavily on private funding, notably from private health insurance, which makes up 34 percent of healthcare spending. Endit