750 



ten years, infant mortality in [the (a) area] had fallen to 17.1, while 

 in [the (b) area] it had fallen to 18.1." It was concluded that these 

 results were essentially the same, although the cost of the (b) method 

 was much less, "* * * an experience which may be of value to developing 

 countries where both financial resources and highly trained health 

 personnel are in short supply." ^^^ 



3. The productivity of labor was used in one U.S. study to illustrate 

 a method of formally calculating the monetary value of health services. 



For example — 



* * * The health costs of producing a member of the United 

 States labor force, aged eighteen, in 1960 were about $1,000; 

 therefore, the 73 million persons in the labor force in 1,960 

 represent a 73-billion-dollar investment. Other costs of up- 

 bringing would of course be added to this figure. The costs 

 would then be compared with the return on investment in 

 terms of labor productivity. 



The study notes that in less developed countries a different pattern of 

 costs and productivity would prevail, but that "one of the troubles in 

 [such countries] is that there is too much unproductive investment." 

 High rates of death and disability detract from the economic return 

 from the investment in feeding and bringing up of a new generation 

 for productive work.^^* 



4. Tliree sets of calculations as to the differential productivity of the 

 U.S. working population with and without health care show large value 

 differences : 



(a) In the years 1900-1960, with 1900 death rate assumed through- 

 out, compared with actual reduced death rates, an additional 13 mil- 

 lion population yielded in excess of $60 billion in additional national 

 income ; 



(b) In the period 1938-1952, the use of antibiotics and chemotherapy 

 in pneumonia and influenza saved 1.1 million lives, and as a consequence 

 national income in 1952 was enlarged by more than a billion dollars; 



(c) The asset value in 1960 of the labor product attributable to 

 workers "added to the labor force by reduction in mortality rates since 

 1900" was estimated at $820 billion. That sum is to be weighed against 

 investment in public health over this period, which is of course a much 

 smaller figure.^^^ 



5. Absenteeism of labor due to malaria in one area of the Philippines 

 was reduced by an antimalaria program from 35 percent to less than 4 

 percent; at the same time, labor productivity rose by 20 to 25 

 percent.^^^ 



6. A yaws eradication campaign in Haiti returned an estimated 

 100,000 incapacitated workers to their jobs.^^^ 



7. On a broader basis, an analysis conducted on 22 less developed 

 countries, in 1970, showed a very high inverse relationship "between 

 variations in infant mortality rates and variations in changes in sub- 

 sequent agricultural output." In fact, in this study, it was found that 



183 Ibid., page 21. 



'w Bryant, '^Health and the Developing World," op. cit., page 105. 



i« Ihid., pages 10.5-100. 



1S8 Ihid., page OS. 



'" Ibid., page 90. 



