How effective is the NHS compared to other leading health care systems?

Medical software provider Vantage Technologies have analysed OECD, WHO, UNDP and WorldBank data to reveal the countries that get the best health care and quality of life, for the most efficient spend. View the full piece here.

The USA has the highest expenditure globally.

A per-person spend of $11,072 places the USA far ahead of every other country in health care expenditure. However, a life expectancy of just 78.5 years, health care coverage of only 84% and a HDI rank of 15th does not match up to this expenditure.

What causes this inefficient expenditure?

A key issue is the full privatisation of health care, without a baseline right to treatment. Outside of the USA, a lot of countries have this baseline free health care, which means that private health care cannot exceed its value, or more people will use public services. Because private health care systems do not have this alternative to keep prices in check, they can charge excessively for their services.

The complicated structure of health care also has a significant impact on these expenditures. Administration fees alone cost US insurers and providers $812 billion in 2017, or 34.2% of national health expenditures that year.

How do other countries compare in expenditure?

Switzerland comes in with the second highest expenditure, spending $7,732 per person. However, with the second-highest life expectancy, at 83.6 years, and the second-highest HDI rank in the world, this spend is effective.

How does the UK’s NHS compare?

Despite regular criticism, the National Health Service is effective when comparing the government spend versus the outcomes of human development and lifespan. While critics point to Switzerland achieving the lowest death rates in Europe, or Germany having a consistently quality health care system, they don’t compare these to the level of expenditure. The Swiss spend $3,079 more on health care per person than the UK – if the UK matched Swiss expenditure per person, an additional $206 billion would be spent on health care annually.

How can we compare these different health care systems?

Vantage Technologies have taken the 25 most expensive health care systems across the world and compared them based on four key ranking factors. These are:

Total health spend per capita, in PPP Int$ – to analyse how cost-effective the health care system is. PPP Int$ is purchasing power parity international dollars, a hypothetically currency that has the same purchasing power parity as the international dollar.
Health care coverage – to see how inclusive and accommodating the system in place is.
Average life span 2020 – a key metric in the effectiveness of a country’s health care, directly showing how living in that country affects life expectancy.
Human Development Index – a broader ranking measuring human development, in which life quality and healthy living is a crucial metric. HDI also measures education, which is vital to a healthy population and an integrated part of government health planning.