ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to identify the opportunities and benefits created through strategic investment in healthcare. It examines with prioritising investment in defence or education, it is more beneficial to prioritise healthcare because necessitates an improvement in education: adequate healthcare cannot be provided without good education. It also illustrates the varying role that healthcare can play in an economy, let one trace the modern evolution of healthcare in the UK. The political and strategic considerations impact on decisions made for the provision distribution and delivery of healthcare. Non-democratic countries may accord a fairly low priority to public funding of healthcare, as shown by the author's experience in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s, even some time after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Even when executed with the best of intentions, heavy-handed regulation of the drugs market can result in a commercial environment that is less attractive for healthcare companies.
