Qatar spent nearly $2,000 per person on healthcare in 2011 for a total of $3.2 billion, making it the region’s highest per capita spender on the sector, new data shows.

The expenses, which jumped 27 percent from $2.6 billion in 2010, were shouldered largely by the Qatari government, who paid for 77 percent of expenditure in 2011, up from 75 percent in 2009 and 76 percent in 2010, the Qatar National Health Accounts (NHA) Report states.

The report doesn’t go into why the expenditure is increasing, save for a note about the population jumping some 176 percent between 2000 and 2010.

But here’s an interesting tidbit:

It is the regular household members (about 40% of the total population) who use the health care system the most and incur the highest share of health expenditure…

Although domestic workers are part of the household they live in, they have little impact on health care utilization and expenditure at the household level.

Rising obesity rates could also play a role, Arabian Business reports.

And with only 10 percent of expenditures focused on preventative care, there’s another possible factor.

Here’s the report:

Qatar National Health Accounts (NHA) Report

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Omar Chatriwala