The average total healthcare costs from the basic insurance for women were over 3,200 euros in 2023, while for men it was 2,850 euros per person.
Women only have higher costs than men between ages 15 and 55. Women mainly have higher costs for hospital care and maternity care (midwifery and maternity services). The difference is greatest for women aged 30 to 35, when the average healthcare costs for women are more than twice as high as those of men of the same age (3,000 euros versus 1,400 euros).
For people over sixty, the average healthcare costs per person are actually higher for men. This is mainly because they have higher hospital care costs. From age 70, the average hospital care costs for men are about 30 percent higher than for women.
Although men at older age do not use hospital care much more often than women, the average hospital costs of men who do use it are higher than those of women. For men aged 70 to 75, the average costs per hospital care user are almost a quarter higher than for women. For men aged 85 or older, this is even 33 percent more.
The costs per person with hospital care also increase more at older age for men than for women. For people aged 75 to 80, one percent of men with hospital care had costs higher than 61 thousand euros, while for women this was 45 thousand euros.
A possible cause is that men more often have lifestyle-related and chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases. This also includes coronary heart diseases, one of the most expensive conditions in healthcare spending.
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