Health Inc Season 5, Episode 1 – Healthcare, overconsumption, and the problem of uneconomic growth
Co-hosted by the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, the DLSPH’s Centre for Global Health, and the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health and Sustainable Care
Title: Too much yet never enough? Overconsumption and uneconomic growth in health and healthcare
Speaker: Professor Martin Hensher
Abstract: Modern healthcare is deeply associated with economic growth. For some decades, evidence has been mounting that the negative consequences of economic growth may eventually counteract its benefits. Consumption is a key driver of economic growth, however, overconsumption in many sectors of the economy directly and indirectly harms health. Healthcare systems, especially in high-income countries, are also characterized by overconsumption resulting in harm to patients, communities and the natural environment. In this talk, Professor Martin Hensher will present perspectives from health and ecological economics that address the mechanisms of these problems and consider how they might be tackled.
Recommended Readings:
- Hensher, Martin et al. (2024). Health economics in a world of uneconomic growth. Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, 22(4), 427-433.
- Hensher, Martin et al. (2024). Diminishing marginal returns and sufficiency in health-care resource use: an exploratory analysis of outcomes, expenditure, and emissions. The Lancet Planetary Health 8(10), e744-e753.
- Hensher, M. (2023). Climate change, health and sustainable healthcare: The role of health economics. Health Economics, 32(5), 985–992.
- Hensher, Martin, et al. (2020). Health care, overconsumption and uneconomic growth: A conceptual framework. Social Science & Medicine, 266, 113420.
About the Health Inc Seminar Series
The corporation is arguably the most powerful social and economic institution globally, with unprecedented power to shape scientific evidence, public policy, and lifestyles. Corporations share practices including advertising, public relations, and lobbying that are common across industries and which impact population health and health equity. For example, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are currently the leading cause of mortality globally and account for 71% of all deaths according to the World Health Organization (WHO).[1] The main risk factors for developing NCDs as identified by the WHO include harmful alcohol drinking, tobacco use, physical inactivity, and the consumption of unhealthy diets rich in overly processed foods.[2] The United Nations has addressed NCDs in their Sustainable Development Goal target 3.4, which is to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by a third by 2030.[3] At the same time, the medically-related industry, including pharmaceutical, medical device, infant formula, and health technology companies have pervasive influence over the production of health evidence, the dissemination of health innovations, and the development of clinical practice and health policy. Critical public health analysis of the power of the corporate sector in influencing public health outcomes informed the field referred to as the commercial determinants of health. The Lancet Global Health defines the commercial determinants of health as “strategies and approaches used by the private sector to promote products and choices that are detrimental to health”.[4] Corporate practices can thus be critically examined and strategically challenged in order to contribute to healthy, evidence-based public policy solutions.[5] In 2021, The Dalla Lana School of Public Health’s Centre for Global Health in partnership with the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto launched a seminar series entitled, “Health Inc.: Corporations, Capitalism, and the Commercial Determinants of Health.” The objective of this seminar series is to create a forum to promote conversations, research training and collaboration across sectors and disciplines regarding the impact of corporations and other commercial determinants of health.
1. World Health Organization. Non communicable diseases. World Health Organization; 2021.
2. World Health Organization. Noncommunicable diseases country profiles 2018. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2018.
3. NCD Countdown 2030 collaborators. (2020). NCD Countdown 2030: pathways to achieving Sustainable Development Goal target 3.4. Lancet Public Health. 396(10255): 918-934 https://
4. Kickbusch, I., Allen, L., Franz, C. (2016). The commercial determinates of health. Lancet. 4(12): 895-896, https://
5. Friel. S, et al. (2023). Commercial determinants of health: future directions. Lancet. 401(10383): 1229-1240. https://