Cost of health: 8% of Albanians cannot afford checkups, second highest in Europe

Albania is among the European countries where cost most prevents citizens from getting the healthcare they need. In 2024, 8% of the population aged 16 and over reported not having had a needed medical examination because it was too expensive.

In the latest available Eurostat data, only Greece has a higher level, at 8.8% in 2025. The European Union average for 2025 was only 1%.

After Greece and Albania, the gap is large. In 2025, the inability to financially afford an examination affected 2.5% of the population in Latvia, 2% in Romania, 1.9% in France and 1.6% in Italy.

Cost remains the main barrier in Albania

In Albania, in 2024, besides the 8% who could not afford the cost, 1.5% said they had not had the examination because of waiting lists and 0.2% because the service was too far away. All three together made up 9.8% of the population.

For comparison, in the EU in 2025 only 1% of the population reported cost as a barrier. Waiting lists were a reason for 1.2% of the EU population and distance from the service for 0.1%. Taken together, these three barriers affected 2.4% of the EU population.

From lack of time to fear of the doctor

Detailed Eurostat data show that barriers to receiving care in Albania are not limited to the health system alone.

In 2024, 2% of the population aged 16 and over said they had not had the examination because they had preferred to wait to see if the problem would improve on its own. This was the second most frequent reason after cost, taking all stated reasons separately.

Lack of time was also a significant barrier. About 1.8% of the population said they had not had time to have the examination, up from 1.6% in 2023 and 1.5% in 2022.

A smaller share of citizens, 0.2%, cited fear of the doctor, hospital, examination or treatment as the reason, while 0.1% reported not knowing a good doctor or specialist. Another 1% mentioned other reasons.

When all reasons reported to Eurostat are taken into account, not just cost, distance and waiting, 85.1% of Albanians said in 2024 that they had no unmet needs for medical examination, and 14.9% had reported an unmet need for at least one of the reasons included in the survey.

Albania far above the region on the financial barrier

Even compared to the Western Balkans, Albania has the highest level of forgoing examinations because of cost.

In Serbia, where data for 2025 already exist, only 1.1% of the population reported that the examination was too expensive. For North Macedonia, the latest available value is 1.2% in 2024, while for Montenegro it is 0.3% in the same year.

For Bosnia and Herzegovina, the latest figure is 0.4% and belongs to 2023, while for Kosovo there are no data in the series used.

Low spending and high out-of-pocket payments

The high level of forgoing examinations because of cost coincides with low consumption on healthcare in Albania and a much higher financial burden falling directly on households.

Other Eurostat data show that individual consumption on healthcare in Albania was €662 per capita in 2025, compared to €3,675 on average in the EU. Even after eliminating the effect of price differences, real consumption of health goods and services in Albania was only about 40% of the European average.

According to the World Bank, in 2023, 48.27% of current health spending in Albania was paid directly by households, the highest level in Europe. In the EU, out-of-pocket payments made up on average only 14.9% of health spending.

Domestic public sources financed about 49.6% of current health spending in Albania, while in the EU mandatory insurance schemes and government schemes together covered 80.6% of the bill.

Methodology

The data are based on Eurostat’s indicator for self-reported unmet needs for medical examination, by main stated reason. The survey includes as reasons cost, distance and waiting lists, but also lack of time, not knowing a suitable doctor or specialist, fear of the doctor, hospital, examination or treatment, waiting to see if the problem improves on its own, and other reasons.

The indicator refers to the population aged 16 and over and is based on the person’s own assessment of whether they needed a medical examination or care but did not receive or seek it.

For Albania, the latest data in the Eurostat table are for 2024. For the EU, Greece and other countries where 2025 data are available, 2025 was used in the comparison. For countries where 2025 is missing, the latest available year was used and the year is specified in the text.

Source: Monitor.al — https://monitor.al/kostoja-e-shendetit-8-e-shqiptareve-nuk-perballojne-ekzaminimet-e-dyta-me-e-larte-ne-europe/