The world's healthcare systems vary enormously in their structure, financing, priorities, and outcomes — from national health services to insurance-based models to community-based care to systems that function mostly in the informal sector. No country has solved the full puzzle of universal access, quality, and sustainability, and understanding how different systems make their trade-offs is useful both for global health advocates and for individuals navigating their own system. Where you are born determines, to a remarkable degree, what care you will be able to access across a lifetime.
Each step builds on the last.