Times are changing, and the number of countries with universal health care in 2017 is slowly increasing, so we decided to take a look at what these countries provide for their citizens.
To begin, we should probably answer the question of “what is universal health care?” The best way to describe universal health care or universal health coverage is quality health care that is equally accessible to everyone, regardless of socio-economic status. So, how does universal health care work?With single-payer health care, the government pays for universal health coverage, usually with tax money. Costs are kept down with this system because the government can regulate the price of medical services and drugs. This system also eliminates much of a need for private insurance. In many places, this health care covers pretty much all your medical services, sometimes with the exception of things like eyeglasses or prescription drugs. Image how much better off we’d all be with universal health care. I’d have more money in my pockets, and probably wouldn’t put off going to the doctor like I usually do.
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While some countries have options for both private and public health care, the United States is one of the most notorious countries when it comes to health care because it operates like an entirely private system. This is pretty sad considering it’s an economic powerhouse and essentially the only developed nation that finds itself on the list of countries with private healthcare, where universal healthcare is not an option. Not to mention that anything health-related will likely cost you an arm and a leg in America. You can see who else outshines the United States in this category with our list of countries with free health care. Making us Americans look bad are the countries with free healthcare and education. You can learn more about them in our list of countries with universal healthcare and free college.
There’s a wealth of information out there discussing countries with universal health care statistics and the benefits of having it. According to the World Health Organization, about 150 million suffer each year financially due to health services expenses, and about 100 million people are pushed into poverty. For these reasons and many others, the WHO is making a big push to get countries to adopt universal health coverage. The organization says all United Nations Member States have agreed to make the necessary efforts to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. This goal will result in a major need for health workers, 18 million additional workers, to be exact, but would increase the lives of people in all corners of the world.
To create our list of countries with universal health care, we sought help from the World Health Organization and the Frasier Institute to determine each country’s (those who offer universal healthcare) spending on health care per capita, in 2015 which is the most recent data. Then we ranked the list based on that spending, so the more a country spends per capita, the higher it will be on our list. There is no difference between the countries with universal health care 2016 and 2017, to our knowledge. It is important to note that there are more than 17 countries with universal health care, but for the purposes of this list, we focused on the top 17 in the Frasier Institute’s data.
Let’s take a look at our list of 17 countries with universal health care in 2017.
