There is no single ‘best’ health system model (OECD, 2025)
This conclusion is based on the following research result:
the efficiency of health care systems varies greatly, both between and within comparable health care systems (within-variance: 60%; between-variance: 40%)
Graphically represented in the figure above, you see this large within and between variance for eight clusters of comparable health care systems👆
This observed large within- and between-country variation emphasizes the importance of targeted, context-specific reforms over a one-size-fits-all approach. Two possible starting points for such context-specific reforms:
🎓 Financial incentives for healthcare providers to improve care quality appear to correlate with better health system performance
🎓 Stronger primary care (i.e. continuity of care, GP gatekeeper role and financial incentives to improve care quality) appears to correlate with a lower chance of avoidable hospital admissions
💻 This research result follows from a so-called DEA analysis of age-standardized mortality rates (ASMR)
️📇 The health care systems are grouped based on the following criteria👇
No causal statements can be made based on these research results (tip: also check this in other studies on this topic).