OBJECTIVES:  To highlight the burden of diseases by linking health expenditure data with patient characteristics, and to enable analysis of the impact of current demographic changes on health expenditure METHODS:  We adopted a top down approach using the 2012 and 2013 Greek SHA (obtained from ELSTAT). Moreover, we obtained volume (e.g. visits, examinations, discharges) and value data by ICD-10 chapter level, from EOPYY, to develop “keys” that were applied to the System of Health Accounts -SHA matrix in order to allocate health expenditure to main diseases, age groups and gender. RESULTS:   Out of €17.2bl in 2012 and €15.9bl in 2013 Current Health Expenditure-CHE, we attributed €15.6bl in 2012 and €14.2bl in 2013 to specific disease categories. Almost, 65% of CHE (in 2013) was devoted to six out of twenty-two disease categories; Circulatory (18.4%), Digestive including dental care (), Neoplasms (10.2%), Endocrine, Nutritional and Metabolic diseases (), diseases of the Musculoskeletal system (7.7%) and Mental disorders (7.1%). Notably, 66% of pharmaceutical expenditure (~€4.5bl in 2013) was devoted to only four disease categories; Circulatory (24.4%), Endocrine, Nutritional and Metabolic (20%), Neoplasms (12.4%) and Mental disorders (9.4%).A large proportion, 46.2% of CHE, was spent on treating 65+ age groups, representing about 20% of the population. The share of CHE devoted to women/men (53.7% / 46.3%) was almost equivalent to the population gender ratio (in both years). However, gender differences were observed in health service utilization patterns; men spent almost 46% on inpatient care, 31% on pharmaceutical care and 18% on outpatient care in 2013, while women spent 39% on inpatient care, 33% on pharmaceutical care and 22% on outpatient care in the same year. CONCLUSIONS:  Increased expenditure for chronic diseases and the elderly underline the need to reorganise care around major patient conditions, by developing efficient integrated health care networks.