Health cuts cost much more than they save

STATE spending on healthcare is an investment that generates a measurable, and significant, rate of return, not alone to the individual but also to the economy.

The benefits of such investment encompass not only improvements in health status, including improved quality of life and longer life expectancy. The gains to the business sector of the economy are also highly significant.

This is what the Government’s landmark 2001 health strategy said: “Apart from the social value of improved health and wellbeing, better health also brings more direct economic benefits... good quality health infrastructure is likely to be an important factor in improving the attractiveness of particular locations in the context of spatial planning or industrial and commercial development... The debate about health spending must recognise the social and economic value which accrues from investment in health and personal social services.”