The World's Best Health Care Systems

World Health Organization Rankings Of Health Care Systems

The World Health Organization ranked the health systems of 191 member states and provided a framework to examine and compare aspects of health care systems around the world. Learn more about the report.

Thailand's Health Care

Bangkok's Bumrungrad Hospital is lavish, but the bill is not.  With over 900 doctors, first class accommodations and plenty of creature comforts, this self insured entity saves money even after travel costs.

State-of-the-art solutions have helped Bumrungrad transform its workflow, enabling it to accommodate a 40 percent rise in patient loads without increasing IT head count, achieve 33 percent gross profit, and handle 860,000 outpatient visits yearly, with the average visit taking just 45 minutes. Learn more about Bangkok's Bumrungrad Hospital.

Affordable Care Act

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law.

Included in the historic law are comprehensive prevention provisions consistent with those called for by APHA in its health reform agenda and supported by other leading experts in population health and prevention.

The enactment of the Affordable Care Act begins to shift our health system from one that focuses on treating the sick to one that focuses on keeping people healthy. Learn more about the Affordable Care Act.

Switzerland's Health Care

Switzerland is very impressive when you consider how fiscally stable the country is. The Swiss system, called Santésuisse, is striking in its differences to ours. Government spending on health care in Switzerland is only 2.7 percent of GDP, by far the lowest in the developed world.

By contrast, in 2008, U.S. government spending on health care was 7.4 percent of GDP. If the U.S. could move its state health spending to Swiss levels, it would save more than $700 billion a year.

The Swiss have achieved universal coverage for all its citizens. The Swiss have access to the latest technology, just as Americans do, and with comparably low wait times for appointments and procedures.

And the Swiss are among the healthiest people on earth: while life expectancy is not the ideal proxy for overall health, nor of a health care system’s performance, life expectancy for a Swiss citizen on his 65th birthday is second only to that of Japan’s.