Are we undervaluing measures to keep people well?
Health analytics Policy & regulation Economy
Improved health or prevention of ill health has significant benefits beyond those direct health benefits for the patient and savings for the NHS.
Ill health also impacts the Treasury in a range of ways including increased welfare payments to support those who are sick and loss of tax revenue due to reduced productivity of the workforce. Achieving a more productive population through a healthier population is a key objective of the UK Government.
Yet, currently, we do not assess health interventions in a manner that reflects these wider economic benefits. In particular, the broader value of interventions that prevent ill health is not routinely considered when decision makers assess the value of such interventions.
We argue in this paper that the current exclusion of fiscal costs in assessments could lead to a drastic under-valuation of certain ‘preventative’ interventions, such as treatments which reduce the prevalence or impact of smoking or obesity. Including this more holistic valuation would better align incentives between fiscal policy and the goal of improving the health of the nation.
Here we propose a novel unit of currency that quantifies (some of) the fiscal value of preventing ill-health to the UK government.
