OK, so it is time to cut to the chase. One of the phrases we hear in the USA is that we have the best healthcare system in the world. But, is that true? Hmm, the answer is, “no.” Let’s look at the rankings of the World Healthcare Organization as to healthcare systems. The WHO says:
WHO’s assessment system was based on five indicators: overall level of population health; health inequalities (or disparities) within the population; overall level of health system responsiveness (a combination of patient satisfaction and how well the system acts); distribution of responsiveness within the population (how well people of varying economic status find that they are served by the health system); and the distribution of the health system’s financial burden within the population (who pays the costs).
OK, so what is the ranking? I will only post the first 50 countries:
1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 United States of America
38 Slovenia
39 Cuba
40 Brunei
41 New Zealand
42 Bahrain
43 Croatia
44 Qatar
45 Kuwait
46 Barbados
47 Thailand
48 Czech Republic
49 Malaysia
50 Poland
With regards to overall healthcare, we rank as only the 37th country in the world, in fact the WHO says:
The U. S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance, the report finds. The United Kingdom, which spends just six percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on health services, ranks 18th . Several small countries – San Marino, Andorra, Malta and Singapore are rated close behind second- placed Italy.
Most of the stories that we tell about the United Kingdom and Canada are old and anecdotal. The actual compiled statistics do not support the current anecdotal stories. This is not to say that the stories did not happen, but it is to say that they are not representative of the system as a whole. And, look who is number one. France is. And France has a hybrid system. What is a hybrid system? It is one in which the financing is a mixture of public and private funding. You see, France is the prime example that a system with some public funding need not become a state-funded system, and can be efficient, low-cost, and universal.
And, look at the other side of it. We spend more money per person than any other country in the world and yet rank below many of the First World countries. No, we are NOT the number one healthcare system in the world. We have some very high ranked hospitals and physicians, but, and this is a very important but, while we may have some top-notch healthcare islands, our system of healthcare itself is very badly managed and distributed.
Did you know that one of the criteria that the WHO uses to evaluate the "quality" of health care is whether a country's law permits Health Savings Accounts? Any country that does is rated lower – even though experience proves that HSA's promote more responsible health care choices an lower costs? I read an article about this once, and the WHO criteria for what constitutes "quality" health care are rife with bureaucratic assumptions – for instance, countries with single-payer government run systems are *automatically* rated higher just because of that fact.Why should I trust such a biased source?
Hmmm….interesting
Those are bogus ratings that do not reflct mortality rates in non healthacare areas such as traffic accidents and murders.
Our cancer survival rates are the highest in the world and the richest of the rich come to the United States for their heath care…not France. That is a fact.
Of course, you cannot expect the WHO, an organization steeprd in a socialist agenda to give all the facts.
A doctor (a Democrat who voted for Obama) speaks about the U.S. healthcare system to Dennis Prager.
Good stuff:
Dr Richman appeared on Dennis Prager
Health Care Reform
8/04/2009
Click here to listen (Part 1). Click here to listen (Part 2).
You can hear the interview here:
http://www.lipidcenter.com/
…..if God be for it…who can be against it?……lest we be found opposing God…..
Can I have the actual link to the WHO’s Health Care Systems assessment that was quoted here? I looked on the site, but could not find it…
Here are two links. The studies are from the year 2000, and are thus difficult to find on the WHO site itself, but summaries have been posted on several sites.
http://www.photius.com/rankings/world_health_systems.html
http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html
They come from the WHO World Health Report 2000. And you can find the World Health Report for various years here: http://www.who.int/whr/en/
I hope this helps.
Thank you so much! I am a fresh fan of your blog, and have actually started quite the discussion on my facebook page just from this post!
http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=116702250&share_id=118686854813&post_id=118686854813&fragment=share_footer118686854813&comments