Comparing Healthcare Systems

The charts below compare the performance of several national healthcare systems. The performance of the United States and several other nations are ranked in the areas of healthcare costs, expenditures, outcomes, resources, and coverage.

You can find an overview of the US healthcare system here. Overviews of several other national healthcare systems can be found here.

Information on more comprehensive comparisons of national healthcare systems and health outcomes can be found here.

Table 1: Cost of Care (by Country). This chart shows that the US has much higher healthcare costs on a per capita, out of pocket, and % of GDP basis.
This chart shows that the US has much higher healthcare costs on a per capita, out of pocket, and % of GDP basis.
Table Two: Selected National Comparisons of Life Expectancies and Infant Mortality. The quality of care in the US is lower in terms of overall care ranking, infant mortality rates, and life expectancy.
The quality of care in the US is lower in terms of overall care ranking, infant mortality rates, and life expectancy.
Table 3: Coverage (by Country). This demonstrates that the US has less coverage in terms of doctors per capita,nurses per capita, and total % insured.
The US has less coverage in terms of doctors per capita,nurses per capita, and total % insured.
Datatable comparing various aspects of the national healthcare systems of Austria, Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States

A number of attempts have been made to compare the healthcare systems and health outcomes of the world’s nations. Some of the most comprehensive comparisons of national healthcare systems include:

Healthcare Access and Quality Index

Sustainable Development Goals Health Index

Commonwealth Fund “Mirror Mirror”

World Health Organization’s World Health Report 2000

The US Health System

National Strategies to Address COVID-19

Health System Reform

Health System Research

Health Workforce Training

Foreign Health Systems

Recommended Resources

Comparing Healthcare Systems

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Page last updated May 26, 2020 by Doug McVay, Senior Policy Analyst.