Better public health policies could save blns of euros per year in Europe: OECD

Better public health and prevention policies as well as more effective health care could save hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of euros each year in Europe, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a report published on Wednesday.

Entitled "Health at a Glance: Europe 2016", the joint study launched by OECD and the European Commission estimates that the premature deaths of 550,000 working-aged people across European Union countries from chronic diseases -- including heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and cancer -- cost EU countries some 115 billion euros per year (121.41 billion U.S. dollars), equivalent to 0.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

EU member states only allocate an average of around 3.0 percent of their health budgets for public health and prevention, said the report, emphasizing that further investment in prevention, along with measures to make it easier for people with disabilities to work, would bring significant economic and social benefits to EU countries.

The report showed slow growth in health spending in many EU countries in 2015, collectively accounting for 9.9 percent of EU GDP.

According to the study, Germany, Sweden and France each spent around 11 percent of GDP on health care, closely followed by the Netherlands and Denmark (at 10.8 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively), while countries in the Eastern part of the EU tend to spend much less, with shares ranging from 5.0 percent to 6.0 percent of GDP.

In all countries, the health spending share of GDP is projected to "increase in the coming years due mainly to population ageing and the diffusion of new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies," read the report. Endit