The world’s healthcare costs are rising at a pace faster than the rate of inflation or spending for goods and services (gross domestic product).

For example, the United States spent $2 trillion on healthcare in 2005, or 16 percent of its gross domestic product, translating into $6,697 per person.[1] This is more than 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.[2] The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other industrialized nation. As comparison, the 2004 healthcare spending in Switzerland was 11.6 percent of its gross domestic product; 10.5 percent in France; 9.9 percent in Canada; and 8.1 percent in the United Kingdom.[3] Most of these costs are attributed to people’s treatment for chronic conditions, such as diabetes, cancer, hypertension and heart disease.[4] This scenario is predicted to worsen as the population ages.

A recent report from the Milken Institute, a U.S. economic think tank based in California, suggests that much of this cost could be avoided. By focusing more on effective prevention and treatment for seven of the most common chronic diseases, Ross DeVol and his research team estimated a reduction of $1.1 trillion USD in direct ($217.6 billion) and indirect ($905.1 billion) costs in the year 2023. Lifestyle improvements such as weight control, better nutrition, exercise, less smoking, more aggressive disease detection and advanced treatment therapies were considered in this assessment.[5]

Nutritional improvement is just one aspect of how diet can have a significant beneficial economic effect. The impact of adequate dairy intake on healthcare costs was first quantified in 2004 by Dr. David McCarron and Dr. Robert Heaney.[6] They reported first-year savings (direct costs only) of $26 billion USD and five-year cumulative savings of $200 billion USD if adult Americans increased their dairy food intake to currently recommended levels of 3-4 servings per day. Global Dairy Platform enlisted Promar International, a strategic marketing, business and economics company, to expand and update this assessment.

Actions to Date

So far, Promar International has developed a spreadsheet model comprised of four datasets (population and prevalence data, economic costs of illnesses, adjustments for interrelated conditions, dairy/healthy diet impact) to calculate the direct and indirect costs of a dairy/healthy diet, based upon the assumptions made by Drs. McCarron and Heaney. Adjustments were made to separate the costs of conditions known to overlap, such as obesity as a risk factor for hypertension, heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

Assuming immediate health benefits, annual U.S. cost savings are estimated to be $60 billion to $105 billion by consuming the recommended amounts of dairy products as part of a healthy diet. A separate evaluation of the impact of a dairy/healthy diet on reducing the prevalence of metabolic syndrome would result in healthcare savings of at least $10 billion.

Currently, Global Dairy Platform is considering an estimate to extend this model internationally. One of the issues is the availability of healthcare costs related to the diseases and conditions included in the model, which is limited outside the U.S. Differences in dairy product consumption throughout the world are also being carefully evaluated to determine the applicability of the model to other countries.