Which Country Has the World’s Best Health Care?

Professor Ezekiel Emanuel co-directs the Healthcare Transformation Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and serves the World Health Organization as a special adviser to the director-general. His reputation is that of a thoughtful bioethicist. Emanuel rescinds the promise of his book’s title early on, admitting that no country can legitimately claim to have the world’s best health care. The title is a wise marketing ploy, but Emanuel doesn’t attempt to rate national health care systems. Instead, he applies data analytics and specific examples to portray each country’s approach to medical care.

Readers will quickly grasp that the abundance of the German systems and the quality and value of the Netherlands’ approach put these systems above the pack. Meanwhile, Emanuel explains, China’s bare-bones approach, and the unevenness, for-profit shenanigans and expense of the US system, put them at the bottom.