Evaluation of Health System Performance with MULTIMOORA Method: OECD Countries

Purpose: The aim of this study is to compare the health system performances of OECD countries in the light of certain health and socio-economic indicators and to make country performance rankings with the MULTIMOORA method. Methods: Firstly, health and socio-economic indicators were determined for the performance evaluation comparisons of the countries through literature review. The data of the indicators were obtained from reliable databases and analysed by MULTIMOORA method, which is one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods. Results: According to the results of the analyses, the countries with the highest health system performance among 38 OECD countries are Japan, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany, while the countries with the lowest performance are Latvia, Costa Rica, Turkey, Mexico and Colombia, respectively. Conclusion: As a result, in countries with high health system performance, access, quality and comprehensiveness of health services are ensured. Per capita expenditures for the health system are quite high. In countries with low performance, the limited resources allocated to the health system cause the service coverage index to remain low. High out-of-pocket expenditures drive especially low-income groups away from health services. In this context, low-performing countries need to improve their health systems by learning from the health systems of high-performing countries and developing strategies to overcome existing deficiencies.