From healthcare to health: Asia’s longevity opportunity

**Gautam Kumra** (0:03)
I am Gautam Kumra, Chairman of McKinsey Asia, and you are listening to the Future of Asia Podcast series. The Asian century has begun. The region is now the world's largest economy.
As Asia's economies evolve further, the region has the potential to fuel and shape the next normal. In each episode, we are going to feature conversations with leaders from across the region to discuss what Asia's rise means for businesses across the globe. Join us.

**Debbie** (0:36)
Over the past century, Asia has seen one of the most remarkable public health successes in history. People are living longer than ever before. But there's a catch. While life spans are increasing, health spans are not keeping pace. And across many countries, people are spending more years living with chronic disease, disability, and declining quality of health. Now, that shift is not just a health care issue, it is fast becoming an economic one. Because when populations live longer in poor health, it places pressure on health care systems, reduces workforce participation, and ultimately slows economic growth. And while this is a global challenge, nowhere is this shift happening faster or with greater consequence than in Asia.
But there is a different path. By scaling interventions that have already proven to work, and focusing on systems designed to prevent illness rather than treat it, the McKinsey Health Institute, or MHI for short, research shows that countries across Asia could add meaningful years of healthy life and grow combined GDP by $6 trillion.
Welcome to the Future of Asia Podcast series. I'm your host, Debbie. And in this episode, we will explore why Asia is at the center of this healthspan transformation, and what it would take to turn better health into a driver of economic growth. Now today, we are joined by two very distinguished guests, Atsushi and Alex. Would you both like to introduce yourselves to our audience?

**Atsushi Sorita** (2:07)
Hi, let me start. I am Atsushi Sorita. I'm a partner in Tokyo office.
I was a practicing physician before Jenny McKinsey, and I was actually specialized in preventive medicine. And this is a very core of my passion. And I've been leading the Japan chapter of MHI for the past years, and I'm looking forward to conversation today.

**Alex Beauvais** (2:27)
And hi, Debbie. Hi, Atsushi. I'm Alex Beauvais. I'm a director at the McKinsey Health Institute and partner based in London.
And I'm a recent co-author of a publication on the health of nation, which really goes into exactly the topic you're talking about here. So I'm very excited to have this discussion today and the implications of the move from health care to health and what it means in Asia in particular.

**Debbie** (2:50)
It's really great to have you both with us today. I'm really excited for this conversation.
Well, let's just start off with the questions. And I'll direct the first question to you, Atsushi. What is the state of health in Asia today?

**Atsushi Sorita** (3:03)
Over the past 100 years, life expectancy in Asia has increased by 40 years, reaching an average of 75 years in 2025 This is a remarkable improvement that reflects progress in health care, living conditions and innovation, and it has been the result of a significantly reducing early death across the population. We see similar trends globally. The average person now spends more years alive now than any time in the past. However, that does not mean that those years are necessarily healthy ones.
If we zoom into the last 25 years, we see that life expectancy in Asia has increased seven years from about 68 to 75 But healthy life expectancy has not kept pace. The difference between total life expectancy and healthy life expectancy reflects the number of years lived in poor health. Today, people in Asia spend roughly 9.8 years of their lives in poor health compared to 8.5 on average in 2000 This varies slightly by country, with years spent in poor health in 2025 reaching 11 years in Singapore, Japan, and South Korea versus 8 years in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
There's also a huge gap between genders, with women in Asia spending 2 more years in poor health than men in 2025 The challenge now is to ensure that the additional years of life being gained are also years lived in good health.

**Debbie** (4:40)
So then, I think it begs the question then, Alex, what exactly is driving this widening gap that we're seeing now?

**Alex Beauvais** (4:47)
The main reason of this acceleration that Atsushi is talking about is really anchored on two very simple trends that unfortunately are going faster and faster. On one end, you have aging population that is then combined with the rise of non-communicable diseases and chronic condition. Of course, they are intertwined.