Euro health consumer index

Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI) is a comparison of European health care systems based on waiting times, results, and generosity. The information is presented as a graphic index. EHCI was produced 2005–2009 and 2012-2015 by Health Consumer Powerhouse. The 2014 ranking included 37 countries measured by 48 indicators. It claims to measure the “consumer friendliness” of healthcare systems. It does not claim to measure which European state has the best healthcare system, but it does produce specialist Indexes on Diabetes, Cardiac Care, HIV, Headache and Hepatitis.^[1]

In 2006 France was the champion with 768 points out of 1000. In the 2015 results the same performance would have given the 13th position among 35 countries because of the widespread improvements in standards.^[2]

Whereas no bias in favour of any health system was alleged, the index was criticised in the British Medical Journal by Martin McKee and others from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies in February 2016. Points they made included:^[3]

• The index is constructed by scoring performance as good, intermediary or not-so-good, based on arbitrary cut-off points.
• There is no logic in how many points are allocated to each indicator. 225 points are allocated to accessibility, but only 250 to health outcomes.
• The indicators are a mix of trends over time and cross-sectional rankings.

Euro Health Consumer Index 2014^[4]

Country	Overall ranking	Patient rights and information ranking	Accessibility (waiting times for treatment) ranking	Outcomes ranking	Range and reach of services provided	Prevention	Pharmaceuticals
Netherlands	1	1	7	1	1	13	1
Switzerland	2	12	1	3	14	6	9
Norway	3	22	22	1	3	1	7
Finland	4	6	10	6	4	6	1
Denmark	5	2	4	9	6	13	9
Belgium	6	22	1	9	4	19	9
Iceland	7	4	14	3	9	1	21
Luxemburg	8	17	7	6	6	5	16
Germany	9	10	7	3	21	6	1
Austria	10	9	4	16	11	19	9
France	11	12	10	9	14	13	13
Sweden	12	12	35	6	1	1	7
Portugal	13	6	14	14	21	19	19
England	14	8	30	16	6	6	1
Czech Republic	15	22	10	16	11	26	13
Scotland	16	17	25	16	9	13	1
Macedonia	17	4	3	33	21	6	21
Estonia	18	10	19	16	11	36	21
Spain	19	24	30	14	14	1	16
Slovenia	20	24	27	9	18	13	16
Slovakia	21	15	10	25	24	19	13
Italy	22	19	22	22	24	6	21
Ireland	23	30	35	9	19	13	1
Croatia	24	19	14	23	19	34	21
Cyprus	25	30	19	16	30	26	19
Hungary	26	24	14	30	24	19	21
Latvia	27	15	19	26	28	26	28
Malta	28	29	25	30	14	6	33
Greece	29	36	22	23	31	19	21
Bulgaria	30	34	14	26	35	26	28
Albania	31	28	4	33	37	32	36
Poland	32	24	30	33	24	26	28
Lithuania	33	19	30	26	28	37	28
Serbia	34	30	27	36	31	25	33
Montenegro	35	35	27	26	35	32	36
Romania	36	30	30	36	34	26	28
Bosnia and Herzegovina	37	37	37	30	31	34	33

References

External links

• EHCI 2005–2009