The Government Accountability Office publicly released a report September 19 entitled "Urban Hospitals: Factors Contributing to Selected Hospital Closures and Related Changes in Available Health Care Services."As noted in GAO's cover letter:"Hospitals play a critical role in delivering health care services to their communities. In 2022, nearly 30 million patients were admitted to approximately 4,500 general acute care hospitals nationally, and spending on hospital services accounted for about $1.38 trillion, nearly one-third of the $4.5 trillion in total health care spending in the U.S.[1] As of 2022, approximately half of U.S. general acute care hospitals were located in an urban area."There…
European Health Forum Gastein 2025 September 30-October 3
Both in-person and virtual registration is still open for the European Health Forum Gastein 2025, which is being held September 30 through October 3 in Bad Hofgastein, Austria. The theme for this year's forum is "Rethinking solidarity in health: Healing Europe´s fractured social contract."There are fees for in-person attendance. Virtual attendance is free of charge. Details are available at the EHFG2025 website. World Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems and policies in the US and sixteen other OECD member nations. Page last updated…
Medicare, Prior Authorization, and a Six-State Trial of AI
The US government is preparing to trial the use of artificial intelligence, large language models, and machine learning in a prior authorization review process for medical procedures under the Medicare program.The New York Times reports (Reed Abelson and Teddy Rosenbluth, "Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures," NY Times, August 28, 2025):"The federal government plans to hire private companies to use artificial intelligence to determine whether patients would be covered for some procedures, like certain spine surgeries or steroid injections. Similar algorithms used by insurers have been the subject of several high-profile lawsuits, which have asserted that the technology allowed the…
WHO Releases World Health Report 2025
May 15, 2025 The WHO released its World Health Report 2025 on May 15, 2025. According to the WHO: "An estimated 1.4 billion more people were living healthier by the end of 2024, surpassing the 1 billion target. The progress in healthier lives was driven by reduction in tobacco use, improved air quality and better access to water, hygiene, and sanitation. But progress towards increased coverage of essential health services and protection from emergencies lagged; only 431 million more people gained access to essential health services without financial hardship, and close to 637 million more people were better protected from…
WHO: Nursing workforce grows but disparities in access persist
May 15, 2025 A new report issued May 12 by the World Health Organization finds that "1 in 7 nurses worldwide – and 23% in high-income countries – are foreign-born, highlighting reliance on international migration."The WHO reports that: "The global nursing workforce has grown from 27.9 million in 2018 to 29.8 million in 2023, but wide disparities in the availability of nurses remain across regions and countries, according to the State of the World’s Nursing 2025 report, published by the World Health Organization (WHO), International Council of Nurses (ICN) and partners."The full report, State of the world’s nursing 2025: investing in education, jobs, leadership and…
WHO: Health inequities are shortening lives by decades
May 15, 2025 A new report issued May 6th by the World Health Organization finds that "underlying causes of ill health often stem from factors beyond the health sector, such as lack of quality housing, education and job opportunities."According to the WHO, the new World report on social determinants of health equity shows that "such determinants can be responsible for a dramatic reduction of healthy life expectancy – sometimes by decades – in high- and low-income countries alike. For example, people in the country with the lowest life expectancy will, on average, live 33 years shorter than those born in the…
Medical Debt in Collections in the US
August 6, 2021 On July 20, JAMA published an article on medical debt in collections in the US entitled "Medical Debt in the US, 2009-2020." The researchers found: "In this retrospective analysis of credit reports for a nationally representative 10% panel of individuals, an estimated 17.8% of individuals in the US had medical debt in collections in June 2020 (reflecting care provided prior to the COVID-19 pandemic). Medical debt was highest among individuals who lived in the South and in zip codes in the lowest income deciles and became more concentrated in lower-income communities in states that did not expand…
Healthcare in the US Compared to Other High-Income Countries
August 6, 2021 On August 4, the Commonwealth Fund issued a new report entitled Mirror, Mirror 2021: Reflecting Poorly / Health Care in the US Compared to Other High-Income Countries. The report compares health care systems in eleven nations: the United States, Canada, Switzerland, France, Sweden, New Zealand, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, and Norway. The report's key findings: "The top-performing countries overall are Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia. The United States ranks last overall, despite spending far more of its gross domestic product on health care. The U.S. ranks last on access to care, administrative efficiency, equity,…
Gallup: 11% of US Adults Unable to Afford or Access Quality Healthcare
April 2, 2025 Eleven percent of US adults are unable to afford or access quality healthcare, according to new research by Gallup and West Health.According to Gallup ("In U.S., Inability to Pay for Care, Medicine Hits New High," April 2, 2025, last accessed April 2, 2025):"The most notable increases since 2021 have occurred among Hispanic adults (up eight percentage points to 18%), Black adults (up five points to 14%,) and the lowest-income households, earning under $24,000 per year (up 11 points to 25%). Meanwhile, there has been no meaningful change in the proportion of White adults or middle- to high-income…
Healthcare Policies in US States: The Washington Cares Fund
March 6, 2025 The Washington Cares Fund is a long-term care insurance program operated by the state of Washington. According to the WA Cares Fund website (accessed March 6, 2025), "All working Washingtonians contribute a small percentage of their income into the fund. Then when you need care, you can access your earned benefit of $36,500 (adjusted up to inflation) to pay for services."According to the Washington State Standard ("Initiative to roll back Washington’s long-term care program fails," Nov. 5, 2024), "The program applies a 0.58% tax on the paychecks of workers in Washington. Beginning in July 2026, those who…