Canadian researchers have concluded that the best way to prolong the lives of individuals within a society is to spend on social services. Traditionally, governments spend on health care to improve the health of individuals, but the problem is that the health system is reactive. The health system is really good at healing people, however, it doesn’t preventive problems from happening in the first place. If societies focused on spending on programs that help people stay healthy then their money can go a lot further to helping people.

“More social spending was associated with a more positive outcome. Life expectancy went up and potentially avoidable mortality went down,” Dutton said in an interview. “Places where social spending didn’t keep up with health spending missed out on those gains.”
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“If governments spent one cent more on social services per dollar spent on health by rearranging money between the two portfolios, life expectancy could have experienced an additional 5-per-cent increase and potentially avoidable mortality could have experienced an additional 3-per-cent decrease in one year,” Dutton said.

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