Best countries for treatment
The Commonwealth Fund, a private American foundation, has published the TOP - countries with the best healthcare system. Surprisingly, the United States did not make the top ten list. At the same time, the country spends the most on health care in the world.
The fund analyzed the state of medicine in 11 developed countries and, based on more than 72 metrics, named the best countries to treat. The research was conducted in five conditional categories: patient care process, access to care, management efficiency, financing and treatment efficiency.
The top ten included countries in Western Europe, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Best countries for treatment in Western Europe
The tenth place was taken by France. The health care system in France is partially funded by mandatory social insurance contributions - sécurité sociale. This fixed percentage is deducted from French people's paychecks. In 2016, employees paid about 8% and employers 13% percent of all wages toward the country's health care costs. The French health care system is partially funded by the government. Each patient pays a small contribution to public medicine, too. All this helps to keep the level of medical services at a high level.
In France there are both state and private clinics. It is worth noting that many private clinics are part of the state health care system.
Higher in the rating of the best countries for treatment in Europe: Germany, Sweden, Holland, Norway and Switzerland.
Swiss medicine leads in the categories of financing and treatment efficiency. The country actively invests in medical research and development. In particular, great attention is paid to oncology. Switzerland is introducing personalized medicine. Scientists are developing tumor vaccines specific to the tumor of each individual patient. Switzerland takes advantage of all the achievements of digital medicine: they introduce robots in surgery, 3D-technologies in dentistry and augmented reality in orthopedic medicine.
Medical tourism is well developed in the country. CorSwiss was founded founded organizes treatment in the best private clinics of Switzerland for medical tourists from all over the world.
The best non-European countries for treatment
Canada, Australia and New Zealand also ranked high in The Commonwealth Fund's ranking.
Canadian medicine is not as well funded as in the United States. There are minor problems with the accessibility of medical services for the population and the effectiveness of treatment.
Australia, on the contrary, performed well in categories such as patient outcomes, patient care, and accessibility of medicine to the public. Australia was the third best country for treatment by The Commonwealth Fund, receiving a low score only in the funding category.
The U.S. private foundation named the United Kingdom as the best country for treatment in 2017. The United Kingdom was recognized as the country with the best healthcare for the third year in a row. Despite the fact that healthcare funding was reduced in 2017 and there is a problem with technical equipment in public clinics.
Nevertheless, the UK received high marks in the categories: preventive medicine, patient care and accessibility of medicine for the population.