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JUST $6 billion would transform the lives of millions of people in the world’s 40 neediest countries, say economists at the World Health Organization. Their conclusion comes from the first study to compare the efficiency of healthcare in countries across the world.

David Evans and his colleagues at the WHO’s Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy found that value for money in healthcare collapses once a country’s annual spending on health dips below $80 per person. “Below this, no country is performing at all well,” says Evans.

This was the case in 41 of the 191 countries Evans surveyed.…

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