I was just about to tell you that France was rated number 1 but this was a couple of years ago. I'm not sure if the cbs link you posted is current as I couldnt find a date on the story.
I've has this debate many times as I came here to train from the UK which has a socialized health care system. The UK system called the 'NHS' was initially an excellent system when it was formed after WWII. However, in recent years it has suffered terribly from chronic government underfunding and numerous bureaucratic reforms. As a result, currently both patients and doctors/nurses are suffering. Every week in the newspapers there are stories of NHS failures. Training is very lengthy leaving many (such as myself) to leave the country. Not surprisingly doctors morale is very low, a shocking statistic is that last year 1 in 3 junior doctors were unemployed in a country where ironically there is a shortage of doctors.
Although the US system is by no means perfect, since training here, there is certainly a stark difference in morale and opportunities; likely a result of organized shorter post-graduate training.
However, many of the countries at the top of the WHO table do not have as large an immigrant and heterogeneous populations as the US and UK. In the UK particularly, whenever something is 'free' it tends to get abused, and thus currently privatization is already occurring in the NHS and is likely to increase.
I believe if people are ready to pay significant amounts of money ruining their health (such as tobacco, alcohol, drugs, fast food) etc, then they should also be prepared to pay for their health with insurance payments which arguably is money better spent. However, this should be means-based depending on income.
Anyway time to get off my soapbox..😴
