Healthy Life Expectancy and EU Policy

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Healthy Life Expectancyand EU Policy

• Clare Siddall
• European Commission
• Directorate General for Health and Consumer
  Protection
• Health Strategy Unit
• AHEAD Final Conference
• Brussels, 28-29 June 2006

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Taskforce on Health Expectancies

• Aim to discuss the methodology and use of the
  Healthy Life Years indicator (and other
  developments in the field of structural health
  indicators)
• Commission, MS and experts meet several times per
  year
• Led by the EHEMU project European Health
  Expectancy Monitoring Unit
• More information www.ec.europa.eu, www.ehemu.eu

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The Healthy Life Years Indicator (HLY)

• Used to distinguish between years of life free of
  any activity limitation and years experienced
  with at least one activity limitation
• Measured using the Sullivan method
• Introduced as a Lisbon Indicator in 2005

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The Lisbon Strategy

• European Council Conclusions, Lisbon 2000
• the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based
  economy in the world
• capable of sustainable economic growth with more
  and better jobs and greater social cohesion
• Investing in people and developing an active and
  dynamic welfare state will be crucial both to
  Europes place in the knowledge economy
• and for ensuring that the emergence of this new
  economy does not compound the existing social
  problems of unemployment, social exclusion and
  poverty

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Health Means Wealth
Source M. Suhrcke, M. McKee, R. Sauto Arce, S.
Tsolova, J. Mortensen The contribution of health
to the economy in the EU, Brussels 2005
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Health Means Wealth

• Healthier citizens reduce strain on healthcare
  systems Health systems account for 9 of GDP in
  the EU Member States
• But also
• Healthy Adults
• more likely to be in the workforce
• more productive
• work and live longer and save more for retirement
• Healthy Children
• better schooling outcomes and education
• less school absenteeism and early drop-out
• ?
• a more competitive economy

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HLY and Public Spending

• Due to ageing, health care spending is expected
  to rise between 1 and 2 GDP in most Member
  States.
• However, if healthy life years increase at the
  same rate as life expectancy, this cost could be
  cut by 50.
• (ECFIN)

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Health Policy 1 Promotion and Prevention Across
the Lifecycle

• The Commission supports work specifically on
  ageing e.g. through funding projects and sharing
  best practice
• But, poor health in old age is often the result
  of a lifetime of poor nutrition, smoking, lack of
  physical activity etc we need a lifecycle
  approach
• Examples of action
• European Platform for Action on Diet and Physical
  Activity involving public, private and
  voluntary sector
• EU level Strategies on Nutrition, Alcohol, Mental
  Health
• Tobacco HELP! campaign increasing awareness of
  risks

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Health Policy 2 Health Services Initiative

• A new initiative to develop an EU framework for
  safe, high quality and efficient health services
  due to be adopted later in 2007
• 2 pillars - improving legal certainty about
  application of Community law on health services
• - support for Member States in areas
  where EU action can add value to national
  action
• Effective Investment can increase Healthy Life
  Years but governments need reliable evidence to
  support action

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Health Policy 3 Health In All Policies

• Making health a strong partner in key
• cross-cutting EU policies
• Health is Wealth
• Emphasising the economic benefits of health can
  be a key means of engaging with other policies
• Lisbon Agenda - inclusion of Healthy Life Years
  indicator - health addressed in some Member
  States National Lisbon Programmes
• Structural Funds more funding of
  health-related projects
• Sustainable Development Strategy greater
  health focus (previously mainly environmentally
  focused)
• Demographic Change links between health,
  social and economic policies

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Healthy Ageing in all Policies
Education
Innovation and E-health
Research FPs
Employment Policies
Sustainable Development
Healthy Ageing Policies
Economic Policy (Lisbon Agenda)
Pensions
Regional Development
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Evaluating the Uptake of the HLY indicator

• Rand Europe evaluation December 2006
• Survey of awareness and use of HLY indicator
  since 2005
• Findings limited awareness and use in
  non-health sectors at EU and national level
• Recommendations further work on HIAP including
  in forthcoming Health Strategy

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European Community Health Strategy

• Aims
• Coherent framework with clear objectives for
  health policy at EU level
• Renewed approach to
• -Key issues where EU can offer added value
• -Health in all Policies
• -Global Health
• Structured implementation and monitoring
  mechanism
• Adoption planned for autumn 2007

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Conclusions

• EU policies need to be supported by solid
  research and comparable data
• HLY will be used to measure progress of the
  Strategy
• Commission welcomes continued work on health
  expectancies in cooperation with the Taskforce