Good health is the world's best investment – and the key to economic resilience
Poor health costs the global economy an estimated 15 percent of GDP every year, while health systems waste 20 to 30 percent of total expenditure on interventions that don't improve outcomes. Writing for the World Economic Forum, Shyam Bishen argues that this combination — high cost, low value — makes the case for reframing health spending as economic infrastructure rather than a line item to be trimmed.
The economic returns on prevention are substantial and well-documented: every dollar invested in adult immunization yields a 19-fold return, and preventive care more broadly delivers returns of up to eight times the initial investment. Yet fiscal pressure is mounting in the opposite direction — 48 developing countries now spend more on debt servicing than on healthcare, according to the IMF, while climate-driven health costs (heat stress alone is projected to cost $2.4 trillion by 2030) and rising antimicrobial resistance threaten to erode decades of health gains.
The piece outlines four shifts for 2026: reframing health as economic infrastructure rather than cost; eliminating waste through outcome-based, data-driven care; unlocking financing through blended and innovative capital (noting that every $1 invested in climate resilience yields more than $10 in economic benefit); and strengthening global cooperation as traditional aid models come under strain.
The throughline is consistent with the broader economics-of-prevention case: investing early and strategically in health is not a cost to be managed, but one of the highest-return investments available to governments and economies alike.
