Denmark's healthcare system spent 4 times more in 2021 than the previous year to fight Covid-19

The price of the coronavirus pandemic to Denmark's health services has been revealed in fresh official data from Statistics Denmark.

Statistics Denmark revealed that Denmark's healthcare system spent 20.1 billion kroner in 2021. The figure was arrived at by tallying all the Covid-19-linked health services for that year. The predicted cost of the pandemic in 2020 when the pandemic began was 5.1 billion kroner. 

In 2021, the additional expenditures related to running tests, contact tracking, and vaccination will account for the significantly greater spending than in 2020.

Tracing of contacts and running tests alone cost 12.5 billion kroner in 2021 which is many times higher than the 1.7 billion kroner spent on the same purpose in 2020.

Covid-19 vaccination only started in December 2020 and pushed up 2021 spending by 4.4 billion kroner. Therapeutic intervention for Covid-19 patients amounted to 0.9 billion kroner.

In all, during 2021 Denmark's health services spending rose by 270.8 billion kroner, a 25% rise. The bulk of that expenditure is linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. The majority of the increase in health spending occurred at outpatient treatment facilities, such as Covid-19 screening hubs.

In 2021, dental treatments were also a greater expenditure for the Danish health service than in 2020, owing to fewer activities in the industry during sit-at-home in 2020. Hospital spending was 2.8% higher (or 116.8 billion kroner), greater than the year prior.

In Denmark, the health service's annual spending growth has been 2.7% on average in current years. The Danish national health service commanded 10.8% of Denmark's GDP in 2021.