what are you talking about besides longevity and infant mortality?
This is from the WHO study and is, I think, typical.
Factors for Measuring the Quality of Health Care
<<The WHO health care rankings result
from an index of health-related statistics. As
with any index, it is important to consider
how it was constructed, as the construction
affects the results. WHO’s index is based on
five factors, weighted as follows:
1. Health Level: 25 percent
2. Health Distribution: 25 percent
3. Responsiveness: 12.5 percent
4. Responsiveness Distribution: 12.5 percent
5. Financial Fairness: 25 percent>>
<<Health Level. ...measured by a
country’s disability-adjusted life expectancy
(DALE).>>
<<Responsiveness. This factor measures a variety
of health care system features, including
speed of service, protection of privacy, choice
of doctors, and quality of amenities (e.g., clean
hospital bed linens).>>
As you can see, their ratings aren't strictly about the quality of health care. When folks use the rankings to justify a universal, single payer system, they are using rankings that weight more than half for simply having that kind of system. It effectively argues that we should switch to plan B because a ranking of countries shows that the plan B countries are more plan B than we are. Only two of its factors are about quality of health care. |
