We know proactive (preventative health interventions and health promotion) health measures work, are cost-effective, and can save lives.

But despite international consensus on the importance of prevention and promotion, there’s been too little action for too long – particularly in the form of expenditure commitments. Across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), on average countries spend just 2.8% of their health budgets on these interventions.

In this report, with ILC-Canada, we use Canada as a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of spending on prevention and health promotion. Canada spends more of its health budget on proactive health measures than any other country in the OECD – at 6%, it’s more than double the OECD average, which has contributed to positive outcomes:

• A steady decrease in avoidable mortality rate: from 150 for every 100,000 citizens in 2000 to 116 for every 100,000 in 2017
• An increase in life expectancy from 79 to 82.1 years
• One of the OECD’s highest five-year survival rates for lung and breast cancers

Emulating Canada’s spending target – 6% of total health expenditure – would be ambitious for some countries, but not unachievable. For the UK, reaching this target would represent a £2.687 billion investment: that’s just 4.5% of the £60 billion the Department of Health and Social Care received for COVID-19 measures.

Recommendations:

• Spend at least 6% of health budgets on proactive health measures, and continue to increase this in line with the rise in preventable diseases
• Target interventions to address health inequalities
• Invest in health education and awareness programmes
• Take a ‘health in all policies’ approach that considers the health and social implications of proposed policies
• Adopt better policies and procedures for the collection and use of patient data to support the delivery of preventative and promotional services