McKinsey estimates Romania could add 9% to GDP by investing in health

Romania could add an estimated USD 26 bln to the economy (9% of current GDP), and the overall disease burden could be reduced by 36% if powerfully investing in health, according to McKinsey Global Institute research. The country could achieve these by 2040, the study says.

MGI researched what it would take to make the Romanian population healthier and then calculated the potential social and economic benefits. It does not provide an estimate on the overall investments needed to achieve the target but says that “focusing on proven health interventions could deliver an incremental benefit of USD 1.70 for each dollar invested.”

As regards the actions envisaged and their health-improvement potential, only 30% of the total potential is attributable to therapeutic actions (surgery, physiotherapy) while the rest of it is attributable to environmental, social and behavioural (36%) or related to prevention or health promotion (34%).

Education for behavioural changes, smoke cessation and weight management (by physical activity) alone would account for 25% of the health-improvement potential. Prevention medicine for heart disease and diabetes would contribute another 15%.

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