Between 2013 and 2019, the budget execution for the National Health Service (SNSP presented a negative accumulated balance of 2,796 million euros, according to the report by the Council of Public Finance (CFP), which was released this Tuesday.
The last two years of the period under review – 2018 and 2019 – contributed most to this budget balance, with a negative budget balance of 733 million euros and 621 million euros, respectively, representing 48% of the total negative budget balance .
According to the accounts of the CFP, SNS expenditure increased from 0.5% in 2013 to 4.8% in 2019, “moving its proportion in the total public expenditure from 10.4% in 2013 to 11.8% in 2019 ”.
As a percentage of nominal GDP, SNS expenditure decreased between 2014 and 2017, but grew from 2018, reaching 5.3% of GDP last year,
In the period under review, “the goal set in the initial budget for the SNS balance was never achieved, the balance being found to be substantially worse than the budgeted balance, with unfavorable deviations ranging from 42 million euros (2017) to 531 million euros (2019). These negative deviations resulted from an under-budgeting of expenditure, which was, on average, 6% higher than that which was budgeted in the period under analysis ”, the document reads.
The CFP warns that “despite the growth in revenue, essentially justified by the increase in transfers from the State Budget (OE) to the NHS, the pace of growth in expenditure poses challenges of financial sustainability that must be considered in the context of budgetary policy and policies of health”.
Since 2017, the current expenditure of the NHS has represented 99% of total expenditure (10.681 billion euros in 2019). And between 2013 and 2019, capital expenditures never exceeded 2% of total expenditure, resulting in a reduction in investment,
In addition, among current expenses, personnel expenses accounted for 42%, external supplies and services 30.9% and inventory purchases 18.3%.
As a result, the CFP says that the immediate effect of the SNS deficits causes an increase in debt to external suppliers that, at the end of last year, amounted to 1,589 million euros.
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