Among OECD countries in 2020, South Korea had the highest rate of yearly visits to a doctor per capita. South Korea had an average rate of 14.7 yearly visits with a doctor per capita at that time. Health care utilization is an important indicator of the success of a country’s health care system. There are many factors that affect health care utilization including healthcare structure and the supply of health care providers.
OECD health systemsHealthcare systems globally include a variety of tools for accessing healthcare, including private insurance based systems, like in the U.S., and universal systems, like in the U.K. Health systems have varying costs among the OECD countries. Worldwide, Europe has the highest expenditures for health as a proportion of the GDP. Among all OECD countries, The United States had the highest share of government spending on health care. Recent estimates of current per capita health expenditures showed that Switzerland and the United States have the highest per capita spending on health worldwide.
Supply of health providersGlobally, the country with the highest physician density is Cuba. According to recent estimates, among just OECD countries Austria has the highest density of practicing physicians. The number of graduates of medicine impacts the number of available physicians in countries. Among OECD countries, Ireland had the highest rate of graduates of medicine, which was almost twice the rate of the OECD average.
