World Health Organization Press Release
December 20, 2001
Commission on Macroeconomics and Health
“A drastic scaling up of investments in health for the world’s poor will not only save millions of lives but also produce enormous economic gains, say experts in a landmark report presented today to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“A group of leading economists and health experts maintain that, by 2015-2020, increased health investments of $66 billion per year above current spending will generate at least $360 billion annually. About half of this will be as a result of direct economic benefits: the world’s poorest people will live longer, have many more days of good health and, as a result, will be able to earn more. The other half will be as a consequence of the indirect economic benefits from this greater individual productivity. It will mean a total economic gain of at least US $360 billion per year – a six-fold return on the investment.”
For the entire report, “Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development”:
Comment: This report demonstrates that it makes economic sense to invest in the health care of the people of poor nations. Although it is disconcerting for health care professionals to see spending on health care reduced to a mere formula for calculating dollar return on investment, there actually is good news here.
Currently, the 60 poorest countries spend $13 per person per year on health care. For comparison, the United States spends $4500 per person per year. The report shows that increasing the level of spending in poor countries to $38 per person would be adequate to fund essential health interventions.
As health care professionals, our first concern is preserving the maximum number of quality years of life possible, referred to by economists as disability-adjusted life years. This modest increase in spending in poor countries would save 330 million years of quality life for the 8 million lives saved each year.
Whether you are an economist looking at the dollar return, or a health care professional looking at the real value in improved health, this is an investment that the world must make.