Andalucía exceeds Spain's average in healthcare spending per capita for first time ever

Andalucía was in last place in 2014, with an allocation of 979 euros per capita per year but, 11 years on, the region has now surpassed the Spanish average in healthcare expenditure per person. This is not data from the Junta de Andalucía, but from central government's Ministry of Health, which shows that, for the first time in history, the region's healthcare expenditure per number of inhabitants exceeds the national average.

The data appears in the report on the financial resources of Spain's national health system, published in August. The report breaks down the effort made by each region in public healthcare and contextualises it with those made by the other regions.

Currently, the budget for Andalucía's regional government allocates 1,764 euros per person for this purpose, while the national average is 1,757 euros.

The report also reflects the progress made by Andalucía in this area since 2018, the last year of the socialist government in the region, when spending was at 1,169 euros per capita. This means that, since then, according to the Ministry of Health's analysis, the region has increased its investment in public healthcare by 51%, an increase of 594 euros more per inhabitant.

This growing investment in public healthcare has meant that Andalusia has gone from being the last, something that happened in 2014 (at that time it allocated just 949 euros per inhabitant) and remained so until 2019, the year in which it began to climb, surpassing the national average - an unprecedented occurrence. The data also means that Andalucía has climbed five places in the list of regions, according to the aforementioned ministry report.

All this data was revealed on Thursday in the Andalusian parliament by Junta president, Juanma Moreno, during the 'control' session (a type of parliamentary question time), in which some of the opposition groups asked about the healthcare policy of his government. "We were the last region in terms of healthcare spending when we took over the [regional] government and today we are exceeding, for the first time in the history of Andalucía, the national average of what the regions spend on their [public] healthcare systems. From the first day we came to power, we began to grow," said Moreno, who noted that this figure for spending per capita even fell to 790 euros in 2002.

Moreno explained what this progressive increase in spending in this area has meant, which today stands at 1,765 euros per inhabitant: "We have 70 more facilities: seven hospitals, five day hospitals, 19 health centres, ten clinics and, what is key, 28,000 more professionals. The numbers speak for themselves." Furthermore, during his term of office, 30,000 new healthcare professionals joined the Andalusian public healthcare service (SAS).