Healthcare continues to be a top priority on the agendas of the European Union and the governments of the Member States. The persistence of the unfavorable economic situation, the arrival on the market of very expensive therapeutic technologies and innovations and the progressive increase in the longevity of the European population are all elements that pose important questions on the stability of welfare models. How to organize the health supply to respond to health needs, optimizing the available economic resources, which by definition are scarce? How to make healthcare spending more efficient and manage the different sources of funding? How to guarantee healthy aging for its citizens and a homogeneous distribution of health levels? These are the key questions that healthcare systems are called upon to answer today.
These aspects are at the heart of the work of Meridiano Sanità (the think tank of The European House-Ambrosetti) which has highlighted the positive effects of the health system in many different areas of the country: from research to the development of intellectual capital and the economic and productive, from the social and labor sphere to the entire welfare system. Overcoming the boundaries of healthcare, considering the virtuous circle existing between health, innovation and growth, therefore requires the adoption of transversal policies, in an integrated vision of healthcare within the country system, in which healthcare spending must assume the value of an investment rather than a cost.
The priority areas in which to invest the economic resources allocated to healthcare should be those of prevention and innovation, since these are the most relevant aspects for tackling the issue of healthy aging and improving the effectiveness of treatments, the efficiency and system integration. They are also two areas in which our healthcare system appears penalized in international comparison, as highlighted by the Meridiano Sanità Index.
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Attachments: Letter November – December 2014.pdf
