Private Sector can Help Bring Good Health and Wellbeing

One of the pillars of our ‘social and human capital’ research that needs urgent funding is health and wellbeing. This is for both physical health and mental health. Funding is also vital for social care.

Mental Health Crisis 

The rising and aging population, malnutrition, the impact of COVID-19, the changing pattern of other diseases, and other factors have placed a huge amount of pressure on healthcare systems across the world. Let’s take mental health as an example. Mental health is a global social issue with nearly 1 billion people living with a mental health condition, according to the United Nations. CHS Healthcare has estimated that 1.9 million people in the UK are waiting for mental health support as of October 2022. The findings from the 2023 Practitioner Pulse Survey by the American Physiological Association show the worsening situation in the US, where 56% of respondents said there were no openings for new patients. The United Nations estimates that the financial impact of anxiety and depression is costing the global economy an estimated $1 trillion per year.

Low Public Funds  

Insufficient funding for healthcare provision has also contributed to these unmanageable demands. With funding not adequately meeting the demand, healthcare systems are experiencing crumbling facilities, bed shortages, workforce shortages, limited equipment, long waiting lists, and regular appointment cancellations. The impact of governmental support for businesses and individuals during the coronavirus pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis has left less money in the coffers to replenish aging healthcare infrastructures and provide adequate social care.

It is not clear which funding model for a nation’s health care system is most effective – governments tend to use a mixture of taxation, private health insurance, social health insurance, and out-of-pocket user charges. However, universal health care is essential to address income inequality and provide affordable care to those who either are not entitled to it or can’t afford it. This was identified and agreed by world leaders when they adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Target 3.8 of the ‘Good Health and Well-being’ goal is to ‘achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all’.

Private and Public Sector Collaboration  

RISE believes that universal health care requires both public and private sectors to work together for the benefit of all and to ensure the poorest and most vulnerable people receive health care and social care.  If private-sector, healthcare professionals can provide services to treat patients and investors can provide finance and expertise to increase healthcare capacity responsibly, it will help ease the strain placed on our healthcare systems and the anxiety and stress on the public-sector health and social workers.