It has been found that only Cuba has truly free health care for all, meaning that patients do not have to spend any money to see a doctor.
The countries that are usually mentioned as having free medical care, such as Canada, Britain, Spain, Russia, South Africa, etc., do have basic free treatment for all nationals without having to pay health insurance premiums, but in practice, they still need to pay a certain amount of money when they see a doctor, such as medication fees and registration fees.
According to the 2010 China Health Statistics Yearbook, none of the world's 193 health spending countries has zero personal health spending. That means none of them have free access to a doctor. In the UK, Japan, the US and India, which are commonly thought of as countries with free healthcare, personal healthcare spending accounted for 18.3%, 18.7%, 54.5% and 73.8% of total healthcare spending in 2007 respectively. China's share fell from 60 percent of the population in 2001 to 35.5 percent in 2011.
Extended information:
There are a number of countries around the world that provide free health care. Developed countries, such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, and Canada have free health care for all. In Russia, free medical care is available to both nationals and foreigners. Among other developing countries, India, Cuba, Brazil and Chile also have free universal health care. There are also some African countries that demand free healthcare, but due to underdeveloped economies, it is just a piece of paper.
Free health care, as a welfare system, can alleviate the heavy burden of health care on the public, especially the disadvantaged. On the other hand, "free lunch" is not always delicious. In some countries, free health care has also led to problems such as low service quality, low efficiency and outdated medical equipment. But this may be the price of free.
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