On average, a 1% drop in GDP corresponded with a 1.38% drop in health expenditure (Figure 1). However, health care expenditure fell by more than that in countries such as Greece and Ireland and less in countries such as Iceland, Slovenia and Hungary. A further predictor of cuts was the rate of health care expenditure growth prior to the crisis. Countries with higher rates of growth before the crisis tended to have bigger falls in health spending after the crisis.