The Russian health-care system is one of the least efficient in the world, but how inefficient is it? As low as it gets within the universe measured by the Health-Care Efficiency Index from Bloomberg. This year’s Index scored Russia as the least efficient of the 55 countries covered.
While life expectancy remains one of the best indicators of health-care efficiency, it is also slow to change. Shifts in the results of the Index stem largely from growth in health expenditures. To the extent that governments play a leading role in regulating and providing healthcare, government intervention has a stronger influence in the index results.