Which Country Has the World’s Best Health Care?

The preeminent doctor and health policy expert Ezekiel J. Emanuel gives an incisive tour of eleven health care systems across the globe, including our own, in search of whose is best—and how we can be more like them.

One thing we can all agree on: the United States does not have the world’s best health care, at least not for all its citizens across fifty very different states. But which country does, and what can they teach the US?

After analyzing the US and ten other countries—Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the UK—the results are in. No health care system is perfect, whether the problem is too many hospital beds in Germany or treating chronic illness in France, and some problems are shared across many countries, from addressing mental health care to containing the rising costs of chronic care. 

With a new coda that examines the handling of COVID-19 around the world, Dr. Emanuel offers evidence of the flaws and triumphs of health systems in the US and globally, and the lessons we can learn from each other.