In bad news for India, the country has moved down by one place to the 120th position in the global health rankings, according to the Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index, which surveyed 169 countries to put together the list. India ranked well below Sri Lanka, which occupied 66th place, Bangladesh, 90, and Nepal, 110th place.
One of the reasons India has fared so low in the list is the healthcare policy by the government. Approximately $240 is spent per person on healthcare. However, it comes out of the person's pocket and is not funded by the government. A trend seen in the Bloomberg report shows that the countries faring well in the list have government funding at least 70 per cent of the total cost of healthcare.
Sri Lanka dropped one place due to its privatisation of healthcare as well as the curbing of expenditure on public spending.
The European countries topped the list with Spain taking the first place and Italy, the second. They both spend roughly $3,500 per person on healthcare.
In a shock, the US slipped one rank to the 35th position. According to a report by The Times of India, China, which currently ranks 52 in the global list, is said to surpass the US by 2040, says Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. This comes as a surprise to the Donald Trump-led country since it spends the maximum on healthcare ($11,000 per person) than any other country. However, its life expectancy has been steadily declining for the past three years.
Cuba fared better than the United States to occupy the 30th position, moving up one place. According to Bloomberg, it is the only non-high income country to be ranked that high in the list.
Other countries in the top ten are Iceland, which grabbed the third spot with Japan following close behind. Japan dethroned Singapore to be crowned the healthiest Asian country. Switzerland comes fifth. However, it dropped two places, compared to the 2017 list by Bloomberg. Sweden occupied sixth place. This country is said to have a strong healthcare system in place which takes up at least 12 per cent of its country.
The island continent of Australia was in the seventh place and Singapore took eighth place after being ousted by Japan as the healthiest Asian country. The ninth and tenth places were given to Norway and Israel respectively.
Norway boasts the highest number of midwives and nurses per capita in Europe. However, the country also has the highest rate of drug overdose and suicide for people under the age of 49 among Nordic countries. Israel, on the other hand, dropped one place to the tenth position. However, its overall life expectancy is exceptionally high at 82.9 years, according to 2017 WHO data.
Countries in Asia which ranked lower than India are Pakistan, Afghanistan and Myanmar at 123, 154, 129 places, respectively. Sub-Saharan countries fared the worst in the list to occupy the lowest places where 27 out of the 30 in the region were at the bottom. Haiti, Afghanistan and Yemen were part of the this.
