15.2% of Albanians do not meet their medical needs, high cost is the main reason, a record in Europe

2025-08-29 21:38:00, Sociale CNA

15.2% of Albanians do not meet their medical needs, high cost is the main

Albania led Europe in the number of people over 16 years old with unmet medical needs in 2024, EUROSTAT reported today.

The data show that in 2024, 3.8% of people aged 16 and over in the EU reported having unmet needs for a medical examination or treatment, a percentage that ranged from 0.2% in Cyprus and 0.7% in Malta to 13.4% in Greece and 15.2% in Albania. Albania holds the record in the region. According to Eurostat, only 2.8% of Montenegrins had unmet medical needs, 8.2% of Serbs, and 6% of Macedonians. Data are missing for Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Although healthcare is theoretically free, broken down by reason, 8.8% of Albanians cite the fact that the service is too expensive (up from the 1% European average), the second highest in Europe, after Greece (9.1%). Only 0.9% of Montenegrins cited the expensive service as a reason, and 1.8% each in Serbia and North Macedonia.

Among other reasons, 0.3% of Albanians mentioned the distance to travel, 1.1% are on a waiting list. Interestingly, Albanians compare favorably with Nordic countries for the answer “I wanted to wait and see if the problem would improve itself”, with 2%, the third highest after Denmark (3.3%) and Norway (2.4%), compared to the European average of 0.4%. The share of those who say they do not have time is also relatively high (1%), second after Denmark (1.6%), while the European average is 0.3%.

In the EU, the top 2 most common reasons for unmet need for medical care in 2024 were waiting lists or that it was too expensive. Together, these 2 reasons accounted for more than half of all people reporting an unmet need for medical care.

The other most common main reasons given were wanting to see if the problem would get better on its own (0.4% of people) and lack of time (0.3%). Less common reasons included fear, not knowing a good doctor or specialist, or being too far away to travel (all 0.1%). In addition to the main reasons specified, a further 0.5% of people indicated another (unspecified) reason for an unmet need for medical care.

A waiting list that prevented medical care was the most common specific reason given for unmet medical care needs in Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Finland and Sweden in 2024. In Albania, the main reason was high costs and waiting lists.

Medical care costs were the most frequent specific reason for unmet medical care needs in Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus and Romania.

The desire to wait and see if the problem would improve on its own was the most frequent specific reason for unmet needs for medical care in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Croatia, Luxembourg and Malta.

In the EU, 1.9% of people aged 16 to 44 reported unmet need for medical care in 2024 because it was too expensive, too far to travel or because of waiting lists, compared with 2.6% for people aged 45 to 64 and 3.3% for people aged 65 and over. In many EU countries, age was a factor associated with unmet need for medical care due to these reasons, although there was no universal pattern – see Figure 2./ Monitor.al

15.2% of Albanians do not meet their medical needs, high cost is the main