Health services account for a large and increasing share of production and expenditure in OECD
countries but there are also noticeable differences between countries in expenditure per capita. Whether
such differences are due to more services consumed in some countries than in others or whether they
reflect differences in the price of services is a question of significant policy relevance. Yet, cross-country
comparisons of the price of health services are rare and fraught with measurement issues. This paper
presents a new set of comparative prices for hospital services in a selection of OECD countries. The data is
novel in that it reflects quasi-prices (negotiated or administrative prices or tariffs) of the output of hospital
services. Traditionally, prices of outputs have been compared by comparing prices of inputs such as wage
rates of medical personnel. The new methodology moves away from the input perspective towards an
output perspective. This should allow productivity differences between countries to be captured and paves
the way for more meaningful comparisons of the volume of health services provided to consumers in the
different countries. One of the key findings of the pilot study is that the price level of hospital services in
the United States is more than 60 % above that of the average price level of 12 countries included in the
study. Price levels turn out to be significantly below average in Korea, Israel and Slovenia.
Comparing Price Levels of Hospital Services Across Countries
Results of a Pilot Study
OECD Statistics Working Papers