HEALTH & ECONOMY

 

 

 HEALTH & ECONOMY

 

 When the Citizens of a country are performing a economic activity out of their education, skill and experience they are termed as Human Capital.
The value of their physical and mental output results in the GDP of a country.
Poor health of a person does not only cause physical discomfort and economic loss to him but also results in the GDP loss to the country.
This is on account of his not working, spending on medical treatment and also the secondary loss by the care givers, relatives etc.
This was best demonstrated by the historical pandemic of 2020 and later.
The expenditure even if made good by the insurance is still a big gaping hole in the GDP or national wealth  and a permanent loss in material terms and not notional.
A health conscious Indian could also suffer due to poor air quality and in 2019 this resulted in a loss of $30 Bn on account of deaths and respiration related diseases.
India being the diabetic capital of the world still does not have adequate data of the loss to the Individual and the country but surely is a recurring expenditure for the individual which could be minimum Rs.3000 person.
Since diabetes has secondary effect on health in Cardiovascular and neurological systems it can be considered to be the most expensive drain on the nation's health and wealth.
Mental health issues which as per my surveys are as high as 20% of the population accounted for over 1Bn$ in 2019.  
It was perhaps the high outgo towards medical visits and treatments for the hapless Mariner which brought about the MLC 2010 code, and may have been counterproductive for the Marine worker. However the short write up does explain the actual loss to the individual and the organisational ecosystem.
© Rajeeve Kaushik