Healthcare in Europe

58 countries with universal health care in 2009.
Most European countries have universal health coverage.

  58 countries with legislation mandating UHC, and
>90% health insurance coverage, and
>90% skilled birth attendance.

See also: Universal health coverage by country

European Health Insurance Card (French version pictured)

Healthcare in Europe is provided through a wide range of different systems run at the national level. The systems are primarily publicly funded through taxation (universal health care). Private funding may represent personal contributions towards meeting the non-taxpayer refunded portion of costs or may reflect totally private (non-subsidized) healthcare either paid out of pocket or met by some form of personal or employer funded insurance. Many European countries (and all European Union countries) offer their citizens a European Health Insurance Card which, on a reciprocal basis, provides insurance for emergency medical treatment insurance when visiting other participating European countries.

European Union

The European Union has no major administrative responsibility in the field of healthcare. The European Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Consumers however seeks to align national laws on the safety of food and other products, on consumers' rights and on the protection of people's health, to form new EU wide laws and thus strengthen its internal markets.

Healthcare rankings

Euro Health Consumer Index 2016

Country	Overall ranking	Total score	Patient rights and information score	Accessibility (waiting times for treatment) score	Outcomes score	Range and reach of services score	Prevention score	Pharmaceuticals score
Netherlands	1	927	122	200	288	125	107	86
Switzerland	2	904	111	225	288	94	101	86
Norway	3	865	125	138	288	115	119	81
Belgium	4	860	104	225	250	109	95	76
Iceland	5	854	115	163	288	115	113	62
Luxemburg	6	851	101	200	263	104	107	76
Germany	7	849	104	188	288	83	101	86
Finland	8	842	108	150	288	115	101	81
Denmark	9	827	111	150	275	115	95	81
Austria	10	826	108	200	238	99	101	81
France	11	815	90	188	263	94	95	86
Sweden	12	786	104	100	275	125	101	81
Czech Republic	13	780	87	213	238	104	77	62
Portugal	14	763	108	150	250	78	101	76
United Kingdom	15	761	108	100	250	109	113	81
Slovenia	16	740	104	125	263	89	83	76
Estonia	17	729	108	163	238	94	65	62
Spain	18	709	87	113	238	94	107	71
Croatia	19	703	108	175	188	104	71	57
Macedonia	20	699	118	225	138	68	89	62
Ireland	21	689	80	100	250	78	95	86
Italy	22	682	83	138	225	78	101	57
Slovakia	23	678	97	163	175	89	83	71
Serbia	24	670	111	188	163	57	89	62
Malta	25	666	80	163	188	94	95	48
Cyprus	26	623	73	125	213	68	83	62
Lithuania	27	620	97	175	163	68	65	52
Greece	28	593	63	125	213	52	83	57
Latvia	29	589	87	113	188	73	77	52
Hungary	30	575	73	125	163	73	89	52
Poland	31	564	66	100	188	63	95	52
Albania	32	551	73	163	175	42	65	33
Bulgaria	33	526	66	150	150	47	65	48
Montenegro	34	518	63	113	175	57	77	33
Romania	35	497	80	150	125	52	48	43

See also

• Economy of Europe
• European Practice Assessment
• List of countries with universal health care