Most OECD countries have achieved universal health care coverage, either through private or public insurance schemes. Coverage has remained stable among top performers since 2013. In Greece, as a consequence of the crisis, around 30% of the population lost access to care in 2013. The country introduced remedial legislation in 2016 to secure funding for the system and restore universal coverage. In Hungary, a series of reforms, including the dissolution of the Ministry of Health, resulted in decreased coverage (from universal coverage in 2011 to 94% in 2017). Mexico and the United States have shown improvements in terms of health care coverage, given the introduction and expansion of Seguro Popular in 2004 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in 2010. They achieved around 90% coverage in 2017.
The range of services covered by health insurance schemes and the extent to which patients have to cover expenses from their own budgets vary across OECD countries. However, the share of out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure on household consumption alone does not indicate whether citizens are benefiting from access to care. For example, Austria, Spain and Switzerland have a high share of OOP, but have the lowest share of unmet care needs. On the contrary, Slovenia and the United Kingdom have a lower share of OOP, but the waiting lists are longer because there are fewer physicians providing care than in other countries.
Education systems across OECD countries provide universal access to schools for children of compulsory school age (which varies between countries). Access to early childhood and tertiary education depend partially on public resources made available to finance them. Belgium is one of the countries where the lowest proportion of funding for primary to tertiary education comes from private sources and is among those with the highest enrolment rates in early childhood and tertiary education. On the contrary, the United States relies heavily on private funding for education (both before and after transfers between sectors), which results in relatively low levels of enrolment at both ends (early childhood and tertiary).
The high share of private funding in some countries is due to grants and transfers to individuals or private institutions. For example, the United Kingdom has achieved 100% enrolment in early childhood education because each child aged 4 is entitled to 15 hours of free care whether in public or private institutions. Chile introduced a law enabling free access to tertiary education for economically disadvantaged students in 2016; before that year, they were granted scholarships and loans. It is envisioned that the majority of students will benefit from such reform in 2020. Chile achieved the largest enrolment rate for nationals in OECD countries in 2017.
In order to access justice, individuals must be aware of their rights and of the existing mechanisms to resolve their disputes, and be able to afford the costs that the process entails. According to the World Justice Project (WJP), barriers to access civil justice (in terms of awareness, fair treatment and financing) are lowest in the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. On the contrary, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States are the countries where citizens have the most difficulties. Alternative dispute resolutions (ADRs) are a way of settling disputes outside of the courtroom. The WJP expert survey enquires about the integrity of arbitrators, the costs and timeliness of ADRs and the enforcement of settlements in commercial cases. The countries with the most accessible ADRs are Japan, Korea and Norway. Hungary, Mexico, and Sweden have the least accessible ones.
