The NHS: best healthcare system in the world, according to new study

According to new international rankings, the NHS comes out on top while the U.S. performs poorly across almost all health measures

The NHS is the best healthcare system in the world and the second cheapest, according to a new report released today by the Commonwealth Fund.

Despite being the most expensive in the world, the American healthcare system also performs worse than 11 similar industrialised nations, according to the study.

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The fund looked at the health systems in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, and found that the UK’s NHS “continues to demonstrate strong performance and ranked first overall, though lagging notably on health outcomes”.

In second place was Switzerland, which has a compulsory health insurance system.

Meanwhile, despite being the most expensive system in the world, the U.S. healthcare system came bottom of the 11, performing particularly poorly when it came to equal health outcomes.

“Americans with below-average incomes were much more likely than their counterparts in other countries to report not visiting a physician when sick,” the study found.

However despite the UK’s impressive overall ranking, the NHS ranked low on the ‘healthy lives’ scale, which measures life expectancy at aged 60 as well as mortality from preventable conditions.

Meanwhile despite lagging behind other countries on health outcomes, quality, and efficiency, the U.S. fared best on provision and receipt of preventive and patient-centered care. The data for the U.S. was also collected before the full implementation of Obamacare, which has significantly expanded insurance coverage.

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