Why achieving sustainable health systems means moving past political cycles to reach long-term commitments

Last year was one of great political change and now today’s government leaders hold tomorrow in their hands. To deliver sustainable growth and build a better future for people, society and the planet, collective action and investment must tackle some of the greatest healthcare challenges of our time in a way that transcends short-term interests and political cycles.

Health is the foundation of a prosperous future. By taking action to improve health, we can add an estimated $12 trillion to global GDP by 2040 – an 8% boost. Ageing populations, mounting chronic disease rates and climate-related ill health don’t just strain already over-stretched health systems, they undermine our ability to build resilient economies and societies.

With health inequities persisting across low-, middle- and high-income countries, the economic consequences of inaction challenge future growth worldwide.

Given the well-evidenced societal and economic benefits, governments must prioritize investment in health. This should be built upon sustainable financing solutions that achieve medium- and long-term outcomes.

This is easier said than done, however. Many governments face cost containment pressures and so the public and private sectors must collaborate to ensure healthcare investments are strategic and targeted to maximize positive impact, transform service delivery and generate long-term savings for health systems. There are three key investments to prioritize:

Globally, up to 3 billion people live with chronic and rare diseases*. This comes at a high cost: The five most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs) could cost the global economy $47 trillion between 2010 and 2030 – significantly more than the current US GDP of $29 trillion. People living with rare diseases in Europe each lose an estimated 78 working days of lost productivity per person annually.

And these conditions pose serious health equity challenges. People of lower socio-economic status are disproportionately impacted by NCDs, while rare disease patients often have lengthier diagnostic journeys, fewer treatment options and encounter limited awareness of their conditions compared to people living with more common ones. Early diagnosis and treatment, alongside efforts to keep people healthy, out of hospitals and economically productive for longer, will be more cost-effective in the long-run. Addressing health inequities will be imperative.

Fortunately, there are solutions. Scientific advances and innovative technologies have significant potential to transform health outcomes and improve health equity. Yet preventative care receives only a fraction of healthcare budgets – an average of just 3% in the European Union – despite NCDs causing approximately 70% of deaths worldwide and posing a major economic burden.

Public-private partnerships can unlock resources and expertise. For example, the Malaysian Ministry of Health collaborated with AstraZeneca to deliver AI-driven lung cancer screening and a community outreach programme that scanned 65,000 individuals, identifying 2,500 high-risk patients who were referred for further testing. Diagnosing lung cancer early in the US can reduce medical costs by three times during the three years after diagnosis, and improve survival by up to 13 times in England.

To reduce health system costs, improve patient outcomes and ensure no one is left behind, we must act early on chronic diseases, eliminate cancer as a cause of death and find innovative approaches to treat rare diseases through scientific discovery and collaboration. Crucially, we must ensure these solutions reach the people most in need.

The climate crisis is another major health crisis to address. Air pollution alone became the second leading risk factor for death globally in 2021, causing 8.1 million deaths. As with NCDs, vulnerable populations are the most impacted. By 2030, the negative health effects of climate change could drive 40 million people into extreme poverty.

The healthcare sector is responsible for around 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and up to 10% of emissions in the US. This trend is exacerbated by insufficient investment in early-stage treatment, which is less environmentally damaging than late-stage care. With an ageing global population and increasing burden of disease, the issue is poised to worsen.

Investing in more climate-resilient, net-zero health systems is imperative, and collective accountability can help build a more sustainable and equitable future.

If we’ve learned anything since the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that health systems need to be more sustainable and resilient to adapt to changing population health needs.

Multi-sector, global collaborations like the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) are helping drive the transformation needed to achieve this. Co-founded by the World Economic Forum, AstraZeneca and the London School of Economics, the PHSSR commissions independent research and develops tangible policy recommendations for change. Now active in more than 30 countries, its latest global report explores solutions such as long-term governance and sustainable financing strategies, offers resource allocation guidance and spotlights under-resourced areas.

Healthcare can too easily fall victim to short-sighted budget cuts, particularly if policy-makers have not yet recognized the vital link between health and the economy. We need bold leaders who are willing to think beyond the next political cycle to strengthen the resilience and sustainability of health systems over time.

Collaboration, with the future in mind, offers the potential for economic growth now and over the long term, creating a healthier and more prosperous society.

*This figure has been calculated using data from the British Heart Foundation, Our World in Data, The Lancet and two other academic research sources.