This morning I read a headline,
“South Korea has Best Healthcare in the World.” Today, people will be repeating
this claim to their friends: “Did you know that South Korea has the best
healthcare in the world?” and soon, that claim will be “fact.” According to
CEOWORLD Magazine, South Korea ranked first in best healthcare in the world.
But there are numerous other reports that did not place it into the top five.
The USA, with exorbitant costs per patient but dismal availability and access,
never makes the top ten. On the World Population Review list, the USA is 37th
ranked and South Korea is 58th. Interestingly, Cuba ranks 39th.
While medical care is free for all and the government runs the system, their
equipment and infrastructure have been compared to East Germany.
A
hallmark of PhD attainment is being a skeptic and looking further into
knowledge claims and the adequacy of reliability. Combined with rationality, using
logic and reasoning, tolerating ambiguity, and delving into facts, my research
did not reveal which country has the best healthcare in the world. Why? It
depends on the measurements used for the analysis.
Many
of the rankings online are outdated and I only found two that measured
healthcare using current data. As a reminder, countries have healthcare systems,
and they are multifaceted. Then, factor in mindset. While the USA embraces
individualism, countries with universal healthcare embrace collective
mindfulness. The lack of preventive care, health insurance, or affordability
have impacted the USA rankings. In the USA, our healthcare system uses an “acute
care model” which is chronic disease management: the equivalent of waiting to
change the oil in the car until the oil light blinks.
Readers,
I recommend reviewing these resources below to get a sensing of the what and the
why of these various healthcare systems. Then, when your friend tells you, “Hey,
I read that South Korea has the best healthcare in the world!” you can reply, “Well,
maybe not. Here’s what I found.”
Until next time, AgeDoc
Best healthcare in the world
from World Population Review [WPR]:
This analysis is in my
opinion the most comprehensive, as it included four different resources. The
WPR
1. Measuring
Overall Health System Performance for 191 Countries, 2000
2. Legatum Properity Index, 2020 (Health tab)
3. CEOWORLD Health
Care Index, 2021
4. US News -
Countries with the Most Well-Developed Public Health Care System, 2021
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/best-healthcare-in-the-world
Best healthcare in the
world, CEOWORLD Magazine:
[This resource was used in
the compilation of findings for WPR above.]
https://ceoworld.biz/2021/04/27/revealed-countries-with-the-best-health-care-systems-2021/
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