Even compared to other former Soviet economies, the Latvian system is under-resourced. Estonia and Lithuania, for example, spend approximately 1% of GDP more on health. Whilst also limiting the feasibility of longer-term reform, underfunding is also harming Latvians’ health today, as evidenced by the numbers foregoing health care and late treatment of diseases as a result. If national health and wellbeing is a priority for Latvia, more public money will need to be directed to its health system. Population ageing is progressing more slowly than in many OECD countries, but is nonetheless complicating the disease-burden, and adding pressure to the health system. At the same time, prevalence of communicable diseases such as HIV remains high.