– Healthcare costs have risen quickly all around the world.
– The amount of these costs and the speed of the increase differ between countries and healthcare systems.
– The growth prognoses for the next few years vary: healthcare costs will either rise quickly or spike.
Economic Impact
– Increases in healthcare costs are often largely compensated for and financed by economic growth.
– What happens if the economy does not grow became, for instance, visible in many affluent countries during the economic crisis from 2008 onwards.
– Healthcare costs simply continued to rise in that period, whilst the economy simultaneously contracted or stagnated in many countries.
– Consequently, the level of affordability declined and the pressure of rising healthcare costs increased.
Impact of Life Expectancy
– The increased life expectancy and the number of people that continue to live with a chronic disorder are evidence of the success and improvements in healthcare.
– Where being able to live longer is regarded as a positive goal, the ageing population also comes with negative associations.
– This also places more pressure on care and cure, and particularly on care.
– As a result, the ageing population demands extra economic growth to compensate for rising healthcare costs.
Role of Technology
– Technological developments make more existing or potential disorders visible and more (often expensive) medical procedures possible.
– Technological breakthroughs and especially disruptive innovations generally increase productivity and result in cost-savings.
– In practice, however, the effect of new technology in healthcare often reinforces, extends and optimizes existing applications and treatments and drives costs up particularly in affluent countries.
Challenges in Affluent Countries
– A common global challenge is to ensure that as many people as possible gain and retain access to good, affordable healthcare.
– All countries are challenged to realize the triple aim to improve the patient experience of care and the health of populations while reducing the per capita cost of healthcare.
– Now many affluent countries find themselves in the difficult, challenging fourth phase.
– They have to face this paradox of maintaining and renewing the healthcare system in a changing environment.
Opportunities for Innovation
– Scarcity is a rich driver for innovation.
– When the problems are overwhelming and huge, the solution is often on its way.
– This is not a matter of coincidence but a matter of cause and effect.
Challenges in Developing Countries
– If it is so difficult to maintain access and quality in affluent countries, is it then not impossible to make good healthcare available to many more people in developing countries?
– Major efforts must be made not only to keep pace but also to catch up.
– Here, too, the population is ageing.
Navigating Healthcare Systems
– In short, the rising costs of healthcare are creating fundamental challenges in countries with all different types of healthcare systems.
– Good, universal healthcare is difficult to maintain.
– Private healthcare with a public safety net risks creating a widening gulf between the two.