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We are taught as young Americans that the United States is number one in many areas but especially in health care. We might have lived all our lives believing this myth if it were not for the health care debate.
On television, almost every day, the health care reformers tell us how Great Britain, France, and Canada, have free health care and we don’t. Realizing the myth of being number one is slipping away from me, I decided to check the facts. Sure Universal Health Care may be available in Great Britain, France, and Canada but not in the United States or all the other Industrialized countries, I thought, thinking only the best were mentioned. With the click of the mouse my American held myth of being number one was shattered. In fact, 18,000 people per year die because of lack of Health Care in the United States according to “Insuring America’s Health: Principles and Recommendations” http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2004/Insuring-Americas-Health-Principles-and-Recommendations.aspx
When checking Universal Health Care on Wikipedia I discovered the United States is the ONLY, thats right, ONLY industrialized country without Universal Health Care.
The following countries have Universal Health Care: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia, Bhutan, China, Hong Kong (one of the healthiest places in the world), India, Israel, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, Austria, Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand.
Ok, I thought, but our health care even if it is not a free universal health care is still number one right? No, it came as quite a shock, that, the United States of America is NOT number one?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) The United States is NOT the number one country for health care. The WHO measured five indicators of health systems for 191 countries and then ranked the countries.
Here is the ranking. Notice the United States is 37. Number one is the best.
Rank Country
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
51 Dominican Republic
52 Tunisia
53 Jamaica
54 Venezuela
55 Albania
56 Seychelles
57 Paraguay
58 South Korea
59 Senegal
60 Philippines
61 Mexico
62 Slovakia
63 Egypt
64 Kazakhstan
65 Uruguay
66 Hungary
67 Trinidad and Tobag
68 Saint Lucia
69 Belize
70 Turkey
71 Nicaragua
72 Belarus
73 Lithuania
74 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
75 Argentina
76 Sri Lanka
77 Estonia
78 Guatemala
79 Ukraine
80 Solomon Islands
81 Algeria
82 Palau
83 Jordan
84 Mauritius
85 Grenada
86 Antigua and Barbuda
87 Libya
88 Bangladesh
89 Macedonia
90 Bosnia-Herzegovina
91 Lebanon
92 Indonesia
93 Iran
94 Bahamas
95 Panama
96 Fiji
97 Benin
98 Nauru
99 Romania
100 Saint Kitts and Nevis
101 Moldova
102 Bulgaria
103 Iraq
104 Armenia
105 Latvia
106 Yugoslavia
107 Cook Islands
108 Syria
109 Azerbaijan
110 Suriname
111 Ecuador
112 India
113 Cape Verde
114 Georgia
115 El Salvador
116 Tonga
117 Uzbekistan
118 Comoros
119 Samoa
120 Yemen
121 Niue
122 Pakistan
123 Micronesia
124 Bhutan
125 Brazil
126 Bolivia
127 Vanuatu
128 Guyana
129 Peru
130 Russia
131 Honduras
132 Burkina Faso
133 Sao Tome and Principe
134 Sudan
135 Ghana
136 Tuvalu
137 Ivory Coast
138 Haiti
139 Gabon
140 Kenya
141 Marshall Islands
142 Kiribati
143 Burundi
144 China
145 Mongolia
146 Gambia
147 Maldives
148 Papua New Guinea
149 Uganda
150 Nepal
151 Kyrgystan
152 Togo
153 Turkmenistan
154 Tajikistan
155 Zimbabwe
156 Tanzania
157 Djibouti
158 Eritrea
159 Madagascar
160 Vietnam
161 Guinea
162 Mauritania
163 Mali
164 Cameroon
165 Laos
166 Congo
167 North Korea
168 Namibia
169 Botswana
170 Niger
171 Equatorial Guinea
172 Rwanda
173 Afghanistan
174 Cambodia
175 South Africa
176 Guinea-Bissau
177 Swaziland
178 Chad
179 Somalia
180 Ethiopia
181 Angola
182 Zambia
183 Lesotho
184 Mozambique
185 Malawi
186 Liberia
187 Nigeria
188 Democratic Republic of the Congo
189 Central African Republic
190 Myanmar
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What are the five metrics the WHO uses?
To read about the five metrics the who uses see the PDF file below
Here is the link to the WHO in english
http://www.who.int/healthinfo/en/
Here is the report in a PDF file of the survey of 191 countries health care
http://www.who.int/healthinfo/paper30.pdf
Not that this invalidates the study, but:
Gaah. Buggered up the blockquotes there; the first one should have ended before “In other words.”
You said “Because the WHO is using as one of their metrics the degree to which “all households should be protected against catastrophic financial losses related to ill health,” the US health care system cannot rank highly”
Well, that is the point isn’t it. One of the values measured is protecting citizens from the catastrophic financial losses due to medical bills. I say, if the United States does not rank highly because of that, then I agree with the ranking of 37 even more.
Thanks for your comments Nathan.
Hmm… Nathan, I understand the US takes a hit because of the universal heath care issue, but there are other things that also make a large difference, such as quality of health care, life expectancy, infant mortality, etc.
For one I know that infant mortality in the United States is higher than in Cuba.
Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
Infant mortality in the US is not necessarily higher than in Cuba.
I believe that Cuba uses the WHO criteria for determining life at birth. These criteria are stricter than those many other countries use, which may account for Cuba's relatively low ranking on the list above. In the US, fetal death is also included in the figures which raises the infant mortality figure even higher. The figures above are not comparing like with like and should not be taken at face value.