When European governments plan their budgets, health spending is too often framed as a cost to be contained. While defense demands urgency, and infrastructure promises growth, healthcare is boxed into short-term accounting and yearly budgets.
But the message at the latest Euronews debate “Healthy Returns: The Value of Investing in Healthcare”¹ was clear: this mindset is not only outdated, it’s dangerous.
Health as growth, not cost
Our panel of senior policymakers, healthcare leaders and industry experts agreed that healthcare should not be seen as a drain but as a driver: it’s one of Europe’s largest sectors, it generates almost 30 million jobs², and a tenth of the region’s wealth³.
“Illness is recession. Health is growth,” said Professor Dennis Ostwald, founder and CEO of the WifOR Institute. “We need to stop treating healthcare as a consumption item and start recognising it as Europe’s most powerful growth engine. More productivity means stronger GDP, more fiscal space, and greater resilience.”
Kris Sterkens, Company Group Chairman for Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine in EMEA, agreed: “We need to look at health as an investment, not a cost.”
The choice for Europe is whether to act now – or risk paying far more later.
The cost of inaction
Sterkens warned of the steep price of underinvestment: “Cancer cases are expected to soar from 20 million in 2022 to more than 35 million by 2050 if investment flatlines⁴. Depression and burnout are also on the rise, with direct consequences for productivity and fiscal stability⁵. And if we don’t start spending more on health as a percentage of GDP than we do now, our life expectancy will go down⁶.”
Ostwald added that “cardiovascular disease alone costs Europe 4 to 5 per cent of GDP each year⁷, a burden that could reach 7 per cent if ignored”. He noted that “cutting that burden by just 20 per cent, would free up resources equivalent to 1 per cent of GDP.”
Despite health’s fundamental role in society, Kalipso Chalkidou, Director of Health, Finance and Economics at the WHO, noted that world governments are reducing spending. “It’s like COVID never happened,” she said. Sterkens cautioned that when health is only treated at an acute level, costs spiral.
For Stine Bosse, MEP with Renew Europe, Europe’s challenge lies in achieving its “dual ambition” – to strengthen health sovereignty while boosting competitiveness of the life science sector. Reaching for global inspiration, Chalkidou shone a light on Ghanaian President Nkrumah’s speech⁸ after gaining independence in 1957, during which he said: “We shall measure our progress by the improvement in the health of our people […] The welfare of our people is our chief pride. By this, my government will ask to be judged.”
Seventy-five years on, Europe still has lessons to take from Nkrumah’s clarity of vision.
Global challenges to investment
Though the debate centred on Europe, speakers stressed the Union’s global responsibilities. Chalkidou noted that “3.4 billion people live in countries that spend more on servicing debt than on health or education”⁹. Meanwhile, aid budgets for health are expected to shrink by up to 40 per cent between 2023 and 2025¹⁰.
Yet solutions exist. Sterkens cited OECD findings that about 20 per cent of current health expenditure yields no measurable benefit due to siloed budgeting and fragmented systems¹¹. Efficiency gains, he argued, could release billions for reinvestment. Chalkidou agreed that strong governance was also essential: “We can’t do healthcare without the private sector and private capital”. The challenge is to guide that investment so it serves long-term social outcomes.
Prevention, innovation and smarter spending
The panel emphasised that prevention, early diagnosis and treatment must be seen as complementary investments. Sterkens commented the aim should be to ' prevent what you can, treat what you can't' and highlighted how countries such as Belgium and Switzerland have built venture capital ecosystems to help innovation thrive: “If you create the right stimulus, you create employment and prosperity.”
While Chalkidou warned against the financialisation of health, which risks raising costs and lowering quality, she endorsed the need for partnerships. “It has to be a win-win,” she said. “You need the right investment target and you need to generate longer-term economic and social returns”. We’ve not seen enough of this, due in part to a lack of capacity, vision and leadership on the part of governments.”
Europe’s opportunity to lead
At EU level, tools already exist. The Health Impact Investment Platform launched in 2023 by the WHO, alongside multilateral development banks including the European Investment Bank, provides a scalable blueprint for a global health infrastructure environment, aiming to channel €1.5 billion into primary healthcare worldwide.¹²
The upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)¹³ for 2028–2034 will be a test of whether Europe can move away from siloed thinking and scale up ambitions. Programmes such as the WHO’s Universal Health Coverage Partnership¹⁴, supported by the EU, are already helping countries to reform systems, strengthen financial management and reduce out-of-pocket spending.
Health as an Investment for Europe’s Future
If COVID-19 proved anything, it was that health crises are economic crises. Yet as memories fade, governments risk slipping back into business-as-usual budgeting. The panel’s consensus was unequivocal: Europe cannot wait for the next pandemic or demographic shock to act.
Healthcare should be recognised as a cornerstone of competitiveness, resilience and prosperity. From precision medicine to prevention, from venture capital ecosystems to EU-level fiscal rules, the tools are available. What is missing is urgency.
Europe’s choice is stark: treat health as a cost and pay the price later – or treat it as an investment and unlock decades of growth, stability and wellbeing.
CP 543401
Date of preparation Sept ‘25
¹ Panel event organised with and funded by J&J. Available @ https://events.euronews.com/value-of-investing-in-healthcare Last accessed Sept 25
² Europe-wide Employees in healthcare sector. Available @ https://ggrdashboard.bundeswirtschaftsministerium.de/ Last accessed Sept 25
³ Europe-wide (EU 27) Gross value added in the healthcare sector Available https://ggrdashboard.bundeswirtschaftsministerium.de/ Last accessed Sept 25
⁴ WHO (2024). Global cancer burden growing, amidst mounting need for services. Available at: https://www.iarc.who.int/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/pr345_E.pdf Last accessed Sept 25
⁵ Depression by McCarron, Robert M; Vanderlip, Erik R; Rado, Jeffrey. Available @ https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/AITC201610040 Last accessed Sept ‘25
⁶ Bohm S, Grossmann V, Strulik H. R&D-driven medical progress, health care costs, and the future of human longevity. J Econ Ageing. 2021;18 Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212828X20300517 Last accessed Sept 25
⁷ Calculation estimating the socioeconomic burden of disease (most recently described in Atitallah et al. 2024 and Hernandez-Villafuerte et al. 2024) and the figures published by Luengo-Fernandez et al. 2023 on the burden of disease from CVD in Europe. Available at https://www.wifor.com/de/download/the-value-of-investing-in-innovative-medicines-socioeconomic-burden-and-annual-social-impact-of-roche-treatments-for-her2-breast-cancer-multiple-sclerosis-and-retinal-disease-3/
https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/44/45/4752/7251239?login=false Last accessed Sept ‘25
⁸ Social Medicine beyond Colonial Rule. The Medical Field Units of Ghana, 1930–2000. Available @ https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/medicine-on-a-larger-scale/social-medicine-beyond-colonial-rule/0FB1E346644A28E1141457B9A1182F4D Last accessed Sept 2025
⁹ New UN report charts path out of debt crisis threatening global development. Available @ https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1165051. Last accessed Sept 2025
¹⁰ Official development assistance for health: an expected 40% reduction. Available @ https://p4h.world/en/official-development-assistance-for-health-an-expected-40-reduction/ Last accessed Sept 2025
¹¹ Tackling wasteful spending on health. Available @ https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2017/01/tackling-wasteful-spending-on-health_g1g72f29/9789264266414-en.pdf. Last accessed Sept 2025
¹² WHO and multilateral development banks kick off EUR 1.5 billion primary health financing platform with new funds and launch of first investment plans in 15 countries Available @ https://www.eib.org/en/press/all/2024-349-who-and-multilateral-development-banks-kick-off-ususd-1-5-billion-primary-health-financing-platform-with-new-funds-and-launch-of-first-investment-plans-in-15-countries. Last Accessed Sept 2025
¹³ The 2028-2034 EU budget for a stronger Europe. Available at https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/eu-budget/long-term-eu-budget/eu-budget-2028-2034_en. Last accessed Sept 25
¹⁴ The European Commission, Universal Health Care Partnership: Building stronger health systems for universal health coverage Available @ https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/news-and-events/stories/universal-health-care-partnership-building-stronger-health-systems-universal-health-coverage_en#:~:text Last accessed Sept 25