Countries with the Best Health Care?

Which countries have the most cost effective health care systems and what policies make this possible?

• What lessons can countries like the US learn from the health care in these countries? Feel free to suggest specific metrics that you feel are necessary for a strong health care system.

• Answer:

  Huge disclaimer: Any definition of "cost effective" is subjective - and depends heavily on statistics that are highly politicized - and often dated.  For example - the World Health Organization ranked healthcare systems by country up until 2000 - at which time it stopped due to the complexity, time and cost. There are many examples of cost effective health care systems, but France, Japan and Singapore always score well on key metrics like obesity, life expectancy and infant mortality. There are basically 3 criteria for measuring a system: Cost Quality Access Unfortunately - as compared to many other industrialized countries that are members of OECD - we don't score well on the first 2 metrics - as evidenced by this chart: Since there are roughly 50 million Americans without healthcare insurance - I'm afraid we don't score well on the last metric - Access - either. The two lessons I see are: Universal Coverage: Ultimately more cost effective (larger population pool) Single Payer: Dictates fair/reasonable costs for a basic service that everyone needs (at various points). Letting suppliers dictate rates is a form of economic Darwinism ... and will bankrupt the county. The U.S. is the only country (out of about 40 that have a "formal" healthcare system) that has neither universal coverage OR single payer.