The Russian health-care system is one of the least efficient in the world, but how inefficient is it? As low as it gets within the universe measured by the Health-Care Efficiency Index from Bloomberg. This year’s Index scored Russia as the least efficient of the 55 countries covered.

Jordan, Colombia, Azerbaijan and Brazil rounded out the bottom five, with the US not far behind, scoring 50 th in the ranking.

in the ranking. The index evaluates data for countries with populations of 5 million people or more, GDPs per capita of at least $5,000, and population life expectancy over 70 years, with a weight assigned to each measure. Life expectancy is weighted heaviest at 60 percent of the total score.

While life expectancy remains one of the best indicators of health-care efficiency, it is also slow to change. Shifts in the results of the Index stem largely from growth in health expenditures. To the extent that governments play a leading role in regulating and providing healthcare, government intervention has a stronger influence in the index results.