The (Fairly Straightforward) Business Case for Health

摘要

Compared to residents of other high-income nations, Americans die younger and are less healthy at every age but incur significantly higher costs per person on healthcare (NRC 2013). Poor health has an impact well beyond expenditures on actual medical services, including costs of $576 billion per year in the United States for absence from work and lost productivity (Japsen 2012). In fact, this pattern of higher cost and lower value has many implications for US health and the healthcare delivery system, including jeopardizing our future workforce. The canary in the coal mine is in trouble when three out of four military recruits between the ages of 17 and 24 are ineligible for military service, often due to obesity (21 percent of rejected recruits), and when children and adolescents are, on average, less healthy than their peers in other countries (Secretary's Advisory Committee 2010). Improving the overall health status of the population is a complex, daunting task, but one that is essential to ensure that the United States remains a leading force in the global economy. The business case for better health is very strong.