International Health Care Outcomes Index 2022 (Civitas)

Summary

This paper ranks the performance of the UK health care system with that of 18 similar, wealthy countries since 2000 or the earliest year for which data is available. It covers the level of health spending, overall life expectancy, the health care outcomes of the major diseases and the outcomes for treatable mortality and childbirth.

Content

Findings

• UK health spending in 2019 of 10.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) matched the average of the comparator countries.
• UK life expectancy of 81.4 years in 2019 was the 17th lowest of 19 countries. The average was 82.3 years.
• The UK breast cancer five-year survival rate of 85.6% was the 15th lowest of 18 countries. The average was 87.0%.
• The UK colon cancer five-year survival rate of 60% was the lowest of 18 countries. The average was 64.3%.
• The UK rectal cancer five-year survival rate of 62.5% was the 12th lowest of 18 countries. The average was 63.9%.
• The UK lung cancer five-year survival rate of 13.3% was the 17th lowest of 18 countries. The average was 18.1%.
• The UK stomach cancer five-year survival rate of 20.7% was the 17th lowest of 18 countries. The average was 30.4%.
• For every 100,000 people in the UK, on average 80.9 were admitted to hospital with diabetes in 2019, the sixth best rate of 13 countries. The average was 98.5.
• For every 100,000 people in the UK, on average 3.0 had a foot or leg amputation caused by diabetes in 2017, the best rate of 10 countries. The average was 5.9.
• For every 100,000 people in the UK, on average 222.9 were admitted to hospital with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2019, the ninth best rate of 14 countries. The average was 201.1.
• For every 100 people admitted to hospital with an ischaemic stroke in 2019, on average 12.0 died within 30 days in the UK – ranking it ninth out of nine comparable countries. The average was 9.5.
• For every 100 people admitted to hospital with a haemorrhagic stroke in 2019 in the UK, on average 41.7 died within 30 days – ranking it ninth out of nine comparable countries. The average was 28.9.
• For every 100 people admitted to hospital with acute myocardial infarction (a heart attack) in 2019 in the UK, on average 8.1 died within 30 days – ranking it ninth out of nine comparable countries. The average was seven.
• For every 100,000 people in the UK in 2019, on average 69 people died of a treatable disease, the 15th lowest rate of 16 countries. The average was 58 people. Note that the UK ranking for amenable mortality was the same as that analysed by the Global Burden of Disease study published in the Lancet in 2017.
• For every 1,000 live births in the UK, on average 2.8 died within 30 days in 2018, the 15th lowest rate of 18 countries. The average was 2.4.
• For every 1,000 live births in the UK, on average 6.1 were still births or died within seven days of birth in 2019, the 15th lowest rate of 18 countries. The average was 5.3.
• For every 100,000 births in the UK, on average there were 6.5 maternal deaths in 2017, the 12th lowest rate of 18 countries. The average was 5.1.

In terms of access to health care, the OECD reports that:

• 100% of the UK population were eligible for a defined set of health care goods and services under public programmes (2019). This is identical to, or very similar to, that in all the comparator countries with the exception of the USA;
• The UK ranked 12th out of 14 countries in terms of unmet need for medical examination due to financial, geographical or waiting time reasons (2018);
• The UK ranked seventh out of 17 countries in terms of government and compulsory funding of total health funding (2019 or earliest year); The UK ranked second out of 15 countries in terms of households who faced catastrophic health spending (latest year).