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A survey of the world's health systems by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that the United States ranked 37th out of the 191 systems reviewed by the organization.

The WHO report investigated the quality of care in each country, how much it cost, and how well it was distributed among the people. The United States, which spends the most per person on healthcare each year-- $3,700 per person-- ranks lower than its industrialized counterparts like Japan, Canada, Scandinavia, the majority of Western European countries, and even several Middle Eastern countries, in part because it fails to provide its poor with adequate healthcare.

France came first overall on the list, while the bottom third of the list was made up primarily of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, which have seen their health standards decrease considerably over the last 10 years. According to Dr. Christopher Murray, the WHO's director of global programs on evidence for health policy, "The HIV epidemic has had an enormous hit on African countries, taking 10 years off life expectancy."

Editor's Note: from The Boston Globe