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A System of Health Accounts 2011 provides an updated and systematic description of the financial flows related to the consumption of health care goods and services. As demands for information increase and more countries implement and institutionalise health accounts according to the system, the data produced are expected to be more comparable, more detailed and more policy relevant. It builds on the original OECD Manual, published in 2000 to create a single global framework for producing health expenditure accounts that can help track resource flows from sources to uses. It is the result of a collaborative effort between the OECD, WHO and the European Commission, and sets out in more detail the boundaries, the definitions and the concepts – responding to health care systems around the globe – from the simplest to the more complicated. The accounting framework is organised around a tri-axial system for the recording of health care expenditure, namely classifications of the functions of health care (ICHA-HC), health care provision (ICHA-HP), and financing schemes (ICHA-HF).

It provides a breakdown of government expenditure according to their function. To meet this end, economic flows of expenditure must be aggregated according to the Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG).

Social expenditure aggregates: The OECD Social Expenditure Database (SOCX) has been developed in order to serve a growing need for indicators of social policy. It includes reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and mandatory and voluntary private social expenditure at programme level. SOCX provides a unique tool for monitoring trends in aggregate social expenditure and analysing changes in its composition.