The United States spends more on health care than any other country, yet Americans continue to experience worse health outcomes than their international peers. What lessons can the U.S. learn from countries that succeed in ensuring equitable access to affordable, high-quality care?
The Commonwealth Fund’s International Health Policy and Practice Innovations program seeks to answer this question by serving as a source for international insights that can spur change in U.S. health care. We aim to inspire through our research into international policies and practices that address common health care problems and promote a high-performing health care system.
To support the transfer of best practices from around the world to the U.S., the program:
- Maintains expertise on international coverage approaches and the financing structures required to support them.
- Sources innovative care delivery models that other countries have deployed to address areas of interest in the U.S., including access and affordability, health technology, maternal health, mental health, primary care, and social drivers of health.
- Learns from other countries’ approaches to advancing health equity.
- Draws lessons from international approaches to achieving sustainable financing.
Key program activities include:
- Annually surveying the public, patients, and physicians in 10 countries to compare health system performance (International Health Policy Survey).
- Benchmarking U.S. performance against other countries on indicators in five domains: care process, access, administrative efficiency, equity, and health care outcomes (Mirror, Mirror).
- Commissioning research on health care internationally that can inform U.S. efforts to improve access, quality, and efficiency, including paths to universal coverage (country profiles).
- Identifying and reporting on health care innovations around the world — from Asia to South America — that could offer solutions to vexing challenges facing the U.S. (International Insights).
- Sponsoring the Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy and Practice, which enable promising international health care leaders to spend 12 months in the U.S. conducting policy-oriented research.
- Convening international policymakers and experts for cross-national dialogue and exchange around contemporary policy and care delivery issues facing governments and health systems.
Program Contact:
Reginald D. Williams II, Vice President
2024 Program Funding Priorities
- Reducing inequities in access to health care.
- Modeling policy changes to make health care more affordable.
- Producing international comparisons of access, cost, and quality of care through use of new and varied data sets.
