World Health Organization’s Ranking of the World’s Health Systems
Some people fancy all health care debates to be a case of Canadian Health Care vs. American. Not so. According to the World Health Organization’s ranking of the world’s health systems, neither Canada nor the USA ranks in the top 25.
Improving the Canadian Healthcare System does not mean we must emulate the American system, but it may mean that perhaps we can learn from countries that rank better than both Canada and the USA at keeping their citizens healthy.
World Health Organization Ranking; The World’s Health Systems
| 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 USA 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 Tobago 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 |
Source: World Health Organization
France’s excellence in health care delivery is probably due to two major factors: 1) it is extraordinarily open and communicative with patients and families which reaps significant patient safety benefits; and 2) it has far more doctors per capita so physicians want patients and patients get a choice.
Do you have a source of this ranking? Thanks.
Paolla,
This information is available on the World Health Organization’s website at http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/
The ranking is contained in Annex Table 10 available here http://www.who.int/whr/2000/annex/en/index.html
Admin – This is not the source for the data you cite. On the “Annex 10 Table” Canada ranks 30th and the United States is 72nd. There are a variety of tables in the WHO report which rank the countries on different criteria, thus moving the order around. Which table are you citing here, as it is not the “Over All Performance” table. Thanks.
April,
The citation is correct. Perhaps you read the table too quickly.
Of course everyone thinks they are as or more important than the next guy. We are a fast food society which expects everything now, regardless of how hungry you are. As someone who has experienced both health care systems (the US and Canada) first hand I can tell you, the wait times are not much different. However, in the US if you have private insurance, you will be greeted with open arms like your checking into the Hyatt Regency. In Canada you are greeted with disdain and told to sit down. In the US the floors are shinny buffed with an expensive machine daily using some kind of toxic cleaner and wax. In Canada the floors are dull but clean having been cleaned with some environmentally safe cleaner but without the special polymer based coating. Canadians are mostly treated like cattle. The quality of health care is not much different depending on your condition. The US has centers of excellence which do advanced research and are well funded. In Canada there is advanced research on a much smaller scale. In the US if you don’t have insurance you avoid seeing the doctor unless your on your death bed, in Canada people fill Emergency rooms with relatively minor complaints, or you see you GP on a regular basis. The treatments in Canada are more standard and well tested and endorsed by Health Canada, even stricter then the FDA. As for the so called rationing, it’s not really rationing, it’s prioritizing based on the urgency for treatment, if it can wait it will while the resources are committed to the people who can’t wait. in the US resources are committed to the people who can pay others are directed to free clinics.
This is all true – but only for the wealthy Americans. I’ve been to free clinics, and they are nothing like what you describe here. In Canada, at least everyone has a fair and equal chance to seek treatment. You don’t have to be nobility or a lottery winner to get health care like you do in the U.S.
This report was published in 2000 with source data from 1997, so the data is now 14 years old. I wonder when they will publish more current rankings and how/if they will differ?
I had a look and see that there has been another World Health Report, published in 2010, but I did not find any world-wide rankings for health systems.
Andrea,
Each of the WHO’s reports covers a specific subject. Their 2010 report is about the financing of health systems. Their next report will cover health research. I’m not sure if or when they will revisit health system performance but you’re right it would be interesting to see how current rankings would compare. Let me know if you come across any current studies or reports covering health system performance.
Will do. Thanks for your response.
Well I say that I had bad experience in Canada or Ontario with the healthcare, it’s free but I have to say it’s not the best. I had to get stiches done and I had to wait for 13 hours to get myself treated by a doctor, and the nurses basically ignored me during that time and told me to sit down. And I basically waited for 13 hours by the doctor. Once I got thru the doctor, he was rude, same as the nurse that was standing by him. Well I got my sitches, but I had to pay for the medication and cruches. Finally I can’t find any family doctor, that I can go reguarly the once a year thing, or if I have some illness I can’t have a family doctor.
Now I’ve been living in Brazil for 3 years now, and we have here two systems the private and public. Now I went thru both, the private I say was excellent no wait times nothing. Doctor treated me with respect and looked after me. Now for the public which people complained about it, well I had a biking accident nothing serious, but had to get also stiches. I was actuall closer to a public place than a private, so I went there. Didn’t have to have any ID just showed up, and as soon as I got there the nurse told me to go to the doctor’s office. I waited there for 2 minutes and the nurse showed up and looked at my knee, well he cleaned it up, and said the doctor will come and see you shortly, 10 minutes later the doctor showed up, and said well we have to give you anesthetic to your knee so we can remove all the small debrees in it, then also stich it up. Well he did it, and after stiching me up he bandaged my knee, and said to go to the other room to get a tetanus shot. He was really friendly, and told me some jokes. Finally on the other room the nurse showed up right away and gave me the shot. And told me to come back tommorow to change the bandage, and I went there for 7 days, to change it and after the 10th day they removed the stiches. I say I was impressed, and I don’t know why people complained about it, and I even told the doctor how it was in Canada, and he just chuckled. Well I know now where I can go and where I don’t have to spend a dime on medicines shots and doctors consultation.
Bruno,
It’s interesting to note that Brazil has both a private and public health care system. Public health care, whether it’s in Canada or Brazil, is not free. At least in Brazil you can exercise your freedom of choice in health care and pay to access medical services in the private system. Thanks for sharing your experiences.