WHO: Healthcare investment "an economic engine":

Proper investment in healthcare is a powerful engine for economic growth". This is the message to emerge from a report by the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health of the World Health Organization (WHO). It finds that "just a few" health conditions are responsible for a high proportion of avoidable deaths in poorer countries, and that well-targeted measures could save around eight million lives a year and generate annual economic benefits of over $360 billion by 2015-2020. The Pan American Health Organization, the WHO's regional office in the Americas, has welcomed the findings. "The fact that to be wealthier is to be healthier is fairly well accepted, but one of the major achievements of the Commission is to document that the reverse is of equal importance," said director George Alleyne.