Where do you pay least for healthcare?
Tuvalu leads on out of pocket at $1/yr; Tanzania is last of the 15 shown at $10/yr.
The number that matters is not what a country spends on health but what comes out of your own pocket. Those are very different: the United States pays only around 11% of its health spending out of pocket and still has the highest absolute figure of any country here.
This ranking is deliberately not derived from the price basket. Health prices do not track the general price level — tested against real spending the model is wrong by 1.2× to 5.4× and always overstates costs abroad, which is why medical tourism exists at all. These are measured World Bank and WHO figures.
| # | Country | Out of pocket | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tuvalu | $1/yr | 0% self-paid |
| 2 | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | $2/yr | 4.1% self-paid |
| 3 | 🇸🇧 Solomon Islands | $4/yr | 3.2% self-paid |
| 4 | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | $5/yr | 27.4% self-paid |
| 5 | 🇲🇼 Malawi | $5/yr | 12% self-paid |
| 6 | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | $5/yr | 10.4% self-paid |
| 7 | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | $7/yr | 10.6% self-paid |
| 8 | 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea | $7/yr | 8.6% self-paid |
| 9 | 🇧🇮 Burundi | $7/yr | 24.5% self-paid |
| 10 | Kiribati | $7/yr | 2.9% self-paid |
| 11 | 🇿🇲 Zambia | $8/yr | 10.3% self-paid |
| 12 | 🇬🇲 Gambia | $9/yr | 33.8% self-paid |
| 13 | Marshall Islands | $9/yr | 1.1% self-paid |
| 14 | 🇨🇩 DR Congo | $9/yr | 38% self-paid |
| 15 | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | $10/yr | 27.9% self-paid |
How this is worked out: Out-of-pocket health expenditure per capita per year (World Bank SH.XPD.OOPC.PC.CD), with the self-paid share alongside. Estimates for comparison, not advice.
Check your own numbers
A ranking is a starting point, not an answer — your income, household and destination change the order. The Healthcare costs runs the same engine against your own figures, and every country above links to its own page.