Recovery and resilience scoreboard.Healthcare.

Abstract

Healthcare services constitute one of the most important economic sectors in Europe, accounting for almost 10% of the GDP, 15% of the government expenditure and 8.3% of the total workforce in the EU. A healthier population and labour force contributes to higher productivity and boosts economic growth. The paramount importance of health has been highlighted by the public health crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has revealed structural weaknesses in health systems across the EU. A key lesson learnt is that additional reforms and investments are necessary to strengthen the capacity, quality and resilience of health systems. Such reforms and investments will not only prepare the EU for future health crises, they are also essential in view of an increasing demand for healthcare resulting from a significantly ageing EU population.