The collapse of US foreign assistance is an opportunity to build a more prosperous world. Once the world’s largest donor, the United States has slashed funding for the US Agency for International Development, President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and other critical programs, disrupting global health and development. Multiple countries across Europe are now also cutting aid, deepening the crisis.  

The most devastating consequence of the US aid collapse is the human toll. Projections estimate 18 million new malaria cases with 166,000 additional deaths, 200,000 children paralyzed by polio annually, a 400 percent rise in AIDS-related deaths, and 1 million children left untreated for severe malnutrition. Many of them will not survive.  

For many outside the global health sector, these losses are tolerated; they feel remote and removed. Nothing, though, could be further from the truth.  

The health and well-being of people around the world have very real repercussions for businesses, communities, and countries. In today’s globalized world, the health of populations is reflected in the strength of the workforce, the size of the market, the risk of an infectious disease outbreak, and the scale of social unrest and migration.  

India, for example, has a 7 percent growth rate and is set to contribute to 20 percent of the global workforce growth by 2050. Yet the country bears high rates of preventable deaths, which undermine the scope and stability of these gains.  

Investments in health can lead to economic benefits and growth.

Recent years have shown us that health is not merely a public good but a cornerstone of economic and national security. Five years after COVID was declared a global pandemic, the world is still recovering. The pandemic cost the US alone $14 trillion in direct costs and lost growth and revenue. The global toll is much larger. And today there is a 50 percent likelihood of another global pandemic in the next 25 years. The early warning signs are seen in the emerging bird flu, a winter of rampant influenza and RSV, and the recurrent outbreaks of Ebola in Africa.  

Failure to protect and promote health is expensive. In the United States, illness-related productivity losses cost businesses $575 billion annually. And in Europe, poor health and health shocks have been shown to increase the probability of workers leaving the labor market by over 50 percent.

Globally, more than 4.5 billion people still lack access to basic health care, which significantly hinders economic prosperity for too many countries. 

Consider Costa Rica, where the government prioritized primary care and universal health coverage. This resulted in marked declines in mortality across multiple diseases between 1980 and 2010. For every US$1 spent, Costa Rica received $1.70 back in improved health outcomes, worker productivity, and health-care quality. These health reforms further led to a positive and statistically significant increase in household income, suggesting that investments in health can lead to economic benefits and growth. 

Poor health often aligns with economic disparities, fueling cycles of inequity in which illness deepens poverty. These are not abstract concerns. Inequity fosters discontent, weakens social cohesion, and creates fertile ground for extremism and violent populism, which cross borders and weaken national security. 

While the evidence is clear, how to move forward is not. Serious global challenges—including the growing consolidation of wealth, which has concentrated power into the hands of a few, compounded by misinformation and disinformation, and growing political unrest—make change, including prioritizing health, difficult.  

To address this, we need a fundamental shift in how we view health. 

Regardless of the US administration’s foreign policy stance, all governments should view health investments as defending their populations’ well-being, security, and economic prosperity. The upfront costs will more than pay off in long-term savings by preventing far greater losses. 

The private sector must recognize the role they have to play. Poor health undermines both worker productivity and the bottom line. Investing in health helps companies do well while doing good. Successful leadership today requires prioritizing long-term sustainability and financial success. Prioritizing health achieves both. 

Investing in health is not just a moral imperative, it is an investment in the resilience of economies, the stability of borders, and the security of nations worldwide.