Gates and Summers Push Global Health Drive as Moral Imperative

DAVOS, Switzerland â€" Pouring money into improving health care in developing countries is a profound moral mission, according to Bill Gates and Lawrence H. Summers â€" and huge achievements are well in reach.

The two men teamed up on Friday to present a new initiative, “Global Health 2035,” that aims to reduce deaths and improve health for low- and lower-middle-income countries within 21 years.

“I believe that this is a once-in-human-history opportunity,” Mr. Summers, the former secretary of the Treasury, said at a panel on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum here. (He also narrated an introductory video.) “It can be done, and it’s the morally right thing to do.”

The panel, which also included Linah K. Mohohlo, the governor of the Bank of Botswana, told the audience that the initiative is meant to help accomplish goals like:

- reducing deaths of children under age 5 to 16-per-1,000 live births
- reducing annual deaths from AIDS to 8-per-100,000 people
- reducing tuberculosis deaths to 4-per-100,000

The initiative also aims to curb deaths and significant illnesses from noncommunicable diseases, particularly smoking. Mr. Summers identified tobacco-related sickness as one of the “lowest-hanging fruits,” fixable primarily through raising taxes on cigarettes, though avoiding taxing them too high and creating a black market.

Mr. Summers also said that sugar and trans-fat foods are now in the position that tobacco was in during the 1960s and 1970s, poised to become even bigger targets. But that fight, he acknowledged, might be tougher, since those substances don’t have a readily assailable public health problem like secondhand smoke.

The initiative emerged from the work of 25 economists and global health experts convened by The Lancet, the medical journal. Guiding the work of the commission was a 1993 report by the World Bank â€" led by Mr. Summers, then the institution’s chief economist â€" arguing that smart health care spending would provide an economic boost as well as improve life.

The incremental costs of enacting Global Health 2035 may seem slightly high, with the first 10 years costing countries between $23 billion and $38 billion alone. But the commission found that the cost-benefit ratios for such investments were favorable: low-income countries could see a benefit-to-cost ratio of 9, while lower-middle-income nations would see a ratio of 20.

“I’m thrilled to see the study,” said Mr. Gates. “It’s nice to have someone pull it all together.”