In 2024, the Current Health Expenditure as defined internationally (DCSi) amounts to €333 billion. It increases by 3.6%, after +3.4% in 2023, which is one of the lowest increases in Europe. Among the fastest-growing expenditure items, healthcare system management costs increase by 4.9%, particularly those of private health insurance schemes. Prevention spending increases slightly (+0.9%), after falling by 50.4% between 2021 and 2023 as the COVID‑19 health crisis gradually subsided. Long-term care spending increases by 3.4% between 2023 and 2024. The share of the DCSi in GDP remains stable at 11.4%, as in 2023.
The main component of the DCSi, the consumption of healthcare and medical goods (CSBM) amounts to €255 billion. It includes hospital care, outpatient care (care provided in private practices, health centres, technical and auxiliary activities) and medical goods (medicines and medical devices).
Hospital care accounts for nearly half of CSBM (47%), or €120.8 billion; it grows by 2.9% in 2024 as compared with 2023. Within this total, care in public hospitals accounts for €93.6 billion (+2.6%) and the private sector for €27.1 billion (+4.0%). Activity in the public hospital sector remains about 3.5% lower than its 2019 level, despite an acceleration in volumes consumed in 2024 (+2.3% after +2.1%). This is mainly due to the continued decline in psychiatric activity since 2016, amplified by the COVID‑19 health crisis. In medicine, surgery, obstetrics, and dentistry, activity in public hospitals has returned to its 2019 level. The private sector has maintained more steady growth since 2022, driven more by volume than by prices.
Outpatient care accounts for 31% of CSBM, amounting to €77.8 billion. It grows by 4.0% in 2024, reflecting higher volumes of outpatient care consumed (+1.7% over the past year), with a stronger rise among specialists (+2.3%) than among general practitioners (+0.4%), and the price increases implemented since 2023 (particularly for technical imaging fees, doctors, midwives, and other healthcare practitioners). Growth in technical and auxiliary activities (+2.9% overall) is mixed: imaging diagnosis are very dynamic (+7.8%), while laboratory services decline slightly in value (-0.7, due to a reduction in fees for tests and samples, whose prices fell by 8.1% because of the multi-year price/volume protocol. Spending on patient transportation grows at a moderate rate of 2.3%. Expenditure on medical goods amounts to €56.2 billion, including €34.5 billion on medicines. Medicine consumption is dynamic in value (+5.5%), driven by volume (+7.3%).
In 2024, CSBM prices rise by 0.6%, below the total inflation rate (2.0%). Outpatient care prices rise by 2.5%, driven by significant tariff increases, particularly for midwives and other healthcare practitioners. This increase in outpatient care prices is offset by the increase in hospital care prices, which rise very little in 2024 (+0.5% in the public sector, +0.9% in the private sector), and by the decline in prices for technical and auxiliary activities.
The funding structure of the CSBM changes slightly in 2024 : the share of healthcare spending covered by the general government (government and social health insurance) falls by 0.5 points in 2024, to 79.4%, or €202 billion (the share of public funding for CSBM in GDP remains stable at 6.9% compared with 2023). Conversely, the share of CSBM covered by complementary health insurance organizations increases by 0.3 points, to 12.8%, or €33 billion. The share of CSBM funded by household out‑of‑pocket payments increases slightly, by 0.1 point, representing 7.8% of CSBM.
This limited increase results from three opposing trends: the 100% coverage for people with long-term illnesses (ALD), which mechanically increases the share of CSBM covered by Social Security each year; the reduction in public reimbursements for certain services this year; and the doubling of flat-rate contributions, which leads to a greater CSBM financing by households. In the scope of the DCSi, which includes the CSBM, as well as prevention spending, long-term care, and healthcare system management costs, out‑of‑pocket payments amount to 10.2%. This is higher than for CSBM alone, due to a greater contribution by households to long-term care.
Overall, household out-of-pocket payments on the narrower scope of the CSBM amounts to €292 per capita in 2024, up from €276 in 2023. Outpatient care remains the largest category directly financed by households’ out‑of‑pocket payments, but households contribute most (as a share of expenditure) to the financing of medical devices, which are less covered by public administrations and private health insurance schemes. The average out-of-pocket expenditure in the European Union is 14.8% of DCSi. France ranks among the countries with the lowest household out-of-pocket payments in the European Union, behind Luxembourg and Croatia.
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Health expenditure in 2024 – Results of the health accounts - 2025 Edition
Each year, results of the health accounts are presented at the Health Accounts Committee, in the presence of the Minister for Health, representatives of health professionals, leading figures from the health sector, researchers, and health economics specialists. Compiled by DREES, health accounts are one of the satellites of national accounts produced by INSEE, adopting its methodology. They also serve as a basis for the preparation of health accounts presented in international framework (the System of Health Accounts, coordinated by the OECD, Eurostat, and the WHO), thereby enabling reliable and harmonized international comparisons of health expenditure.
Each year, health accounts series are revised as regards those published in previous editions. This revision is due to DREES conducting methodological work every year to improve and enrich the accounts. In this edition, for example, Drees includes for the first time estimates of spending on psychologists, occupational therapists, psychometricians, and dieticians. To ensure statistical consistency of the series over time, the series have been back-cast to include these innovations. Finally, the publication is accompanied by the release of datasets in CSV format, that allow for detailed exploration of CSBM values by component and by financer, as well as the volume-price breakdown of CSBM by component.