If you or one of your family members has a serious health condition, the answer to the healthcare question can outweigh all of the other criteria that you need to consider when making the decision to move or to stay where you are.

Sometimes people consider health care as an after thought when they are thinking about taking a position in a new city. They assume that if they currently reside in a country that provides good health care services that this quality of health care will be available in their new city. Often, they also assume that the costs will be similar to their home country.

These assumptions are not always true. Some countries offer universal health care and some do not. Some allow non-citizens to participate in the universal system. Some do not.

Also, in some countries, the standard of health care is not as high as it is in other countries. This deficiency in the standard of care could apply in general, or it could apply to localized areas of the population. For example, in some countries there is a large discrepancy between good and bad hospitals. If you have the money, often care is of a very high standard. The opposite is also true, unfortunately.

If you are considering a move and you or a family member has a serious health condition, you will need as much information as possible about the health care system in the city you are considering moving to. To help you with your research, we have compiled data based on the World Health Organization’s World Health Statistics and other regional surveys and have ranked 81 cities around the world in terms of their health care. The results can be found in Table 1 and Table 2.

To construct the tables, five different health care areas were considered. They are as follows:

• Health Care Workers - Number of Physicians
• Health Care Workers - Number of Nurses and Midwifery Personnel
• Health Care System Resources (Government Spending)
• Costs to Private Individuals
• Access to Healthcare for Non-Citizens

Each city was ranked on a scale of 1 to 100 for each of the first four categories. The final category, access to healthcare for non-citizens, was ranking on a scale of 1 to 5. An overall ranking for each city was then generated.

The access to healthcare category was rated on a different scale because of the subjective nature of the data. The eligibility requirements for health care services vary from country to country and are constantly changing. It is recommended that you research the particular country that you are traveling to with its embassy to obtain the latest information before you relocate.

It should be noted that life expectancy or mortality rates for certain diseases were not consider as factors in the ranking table. Although these items are important when trying to understand how healthy a society is, they are not necessarily relevant to a relocating executive. Often these particular factors are more related to the long-term habits of a city and would not be relevant to someone that is relocating for a one to three year period.

As you can see from the results, Oslo is ranked first. Oslo is followed by Copenhagen in second. Amsterdam, Stockholm, and London are the remaining cities in the top 5 positions.

The two Scandinavian cities are ranked high mainly due to the amount of government spending that is put into the health care system by their respective countries. In addition, Norway provides universal health care to all which makes the cost of health care for the private individual lower when compared to other cities in the table. Although Denmark does not provide universal health care to all, the average private expenditure on health care is relatively low.

The remaining top 10 spots are filled with European cities. On average, cities in the European region rank higher in the table than all other regions.

The first non-European city in the listing is Hong Kong which is ranked twentieth. Hong Kong is followed by the two Japanese cities of Nagoya and Tokyo. The Japanese government funds a high percentage of the health care costs. However, it should be noted, that the public funding is not available to non-citizens living in Japan.

The first U.S. city, Boston, does not appear until spot 33. All of the Western European cities, except Athens, rank higher than any of the U.S. cities. Although the quality of the health care in the U.S. is considered to be of a very high standard, the main reason for the average rankings of the U.S. cities is the cost of health care. Because the U.S. health care system is mostly privately based, the costs are very high, especially for non-citizens.

The bottom five spots on the list are filled with Saigon; the Indian cities of Bangalore, Mumbai, and New Delhi; and Phnom Penh.

By far, the region with the highest rankings is Europe. Europe is followed by the Americas, the Middle East and Asia, and then Africa. Despite the high rankings of Hong Kong, Nagoya, Tokyo, Auckland, Melbourne, and Sydney, the other cities of the Asian region bring the average region rating down.

If a city is towards the bottom of the ratings table, it does not necessarily mean that good health care cannot be found in that city. For example, the South African cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town do offer premier, high-tech operations and health care services. This level of service will, however, come at a high cost and is therefore generally not available to every inhabitant of the cities.

Likewise, if a city has an accessibility rating of no, then it does not mean that non-citizens cannot have access to health care. Non-citizens just cannot have access to free health care. Private insurance policies can be obtained that cover non-citizens in these cities.

When you are considering relocating to another city, there are many things to think about. If you or another family member has health care problems, you may have thought that relocating was out of the question. This conclusion does not have to be the case. However, detailed research into what health care services are available and their costs is necessary before you leave your home country.

The ranking table below provides data that helps you to consider whether your preconceived assumptions about health care services around the world, and in your home country, are true or not before you make your final decision to relocate.

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