What do you think of an investment that could buy us ten years of health? And what about the potential saving of 230 million lives by 2040?
COVID-19 has been a catalyst for how much health matters for individuals, society, and the global economy. The pandemic has exposed many flaws in the healthcare systems and underscored the benefits of streamlined regulation and innovation. While the whole world reimagines public health and rebuilds its economy, we have a unique opportunity not merely to restore the past but to dramatically advance broad-based health and prosperity.
In Prioritizing health: A prescription for prosperity, a new McKinsey report measures the potential to reduce the burden of disease globally by applying proven interventions across the human lifespan over two decades.
It is always important to reinforce how recent innovations have led to dramatic improvements in survival rates for people with certain types of cancer, heart disease, and stroke in many countries. Improvements in health have extended lives and improved quality of life, contributing to the rapid expansion of the labor force and labor productivity in the second half of the 20th century, which were critical factors behind strong economic growth over that period.
$12 trillion into the global economy in 2040, an 8% boost
Economists estimate that 30 to 40 percent of the economic growth in advanced economies in the past century comes from improvements in the health of global populations.
The research focused on more recent years has found that health contributed almost as much as to income growth as education.
What role does innovation play?
McKinsey estimates that the global disease burden could be reduced by about 40 percent
by applying known interventions in broader segments of populations and closer adherence to the most effective tools. Today’s responses are the innovations of the past. Without them, healthy lifespans would not be as long as they are. Innovation continues to be critical to tackle diseases without a known cure and increase uptake and adherence to interventions we know work (about 60 percent of the remaining disease burden in their analysis).
The good news is that innovations that change entirely, patients’ lives continue to emerge and prove the continuing power of innovation. One example is the nearly 70 percent reduction in premature death due to chronic myeloid leukemia in Switzerland from 1995 to 2017.
Realizing these innovations will require continual investment in research and development across pharmaceutical companies, medical and other technology companies, and academia. It also requires a coordinated effort by all stakeholders —governments, companies, and health institutions— to promote change within healthcare systems and beyond.
But today, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, a unique opportunity to do just that has emerged. The benefits would be enormous: a $12 trillion economic opportunity, hundreds of millions of lives saved, and better health in the global population.
Could there be a more important objective than making the world both healthier and more prosperous?
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Prioritizing health: A prescription for prosperity
