evidence: The growing pressure on health system budgets reflects a challenging economic climate, with competing priorities squeezing the public funds available for health. This has been exacerbated by high levels of inflation and the increasing demands of an ageing population. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, OECD countries spent on average 8.8% of GDP on healthcare, a figure relatively unchanged since 2013. By 2021, this proportion had jumped to 9.7%. However, 2022 estimates point to a significant fall to 9.2%, reflecting a reduced need for spending to tackle the pandemic but also the impact of inflation. This increasing pressure on health systems will require major policy change in the coming years. Over the long term, growth in health spending from public sources is projected to be twice the average growth in government revenues (2.6% and 1.3% respectively on average across OECD countries). When combined with the need to invest in health systems for future resilience, this could lead to a potential high of 11.8% of GDP being dedicated to health spending by 2040.