With almost every country in the world experiencing growth in the number and proportion of older people in their population, demand for healthcare services looks set to grow strongly over the next few decades.
I believe this makes the healthcare sector a great place to make buy and hold investments.
But which ASX healthcare shares should you buy? Here are two to consider snapping up:
Pro Medicus Limited (ASX: PME)
The first ASX healthcare share to consider buying is Pro Medicus. It is a fast-growing provider of a full range of radiology IT software and services to hospitals, imaging centres, and healthcare groups globally. The product which I think has the potential is its Visage 7 platform. It delivers fast, multi-dimensional images streamed via an intelligent thin-client viewer. This makes it vastly superior to cumbersome legacy systems and has a proven return on investment for users.
Also supporting its growth is the Visage RIS product. It is a comprehensive, enterprise-class, and state-of-the-art radiology information system. It is being used by two of the biggest radiology providers in Australia on long term contracts. Combined with its high margins, I believe these platforms leave Pro Medicus well-positioned to deliver strong earnings growth over the next decade and beyond.
Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC)
Another ASX healthcare share to consider buying is Ramsay Health Care. It is one of the world's leading private healthcare companies. Ramsay currently owns and operates a total of 480 facilities across 11 countries. From these facilities it looks after 8.5 million patients each year at present.
This makes it the market leader in the Australia, France, and Scandinavia markets. Due to its strong market position, I believe Ramsay Health Care will benefit greatly from the increasing demand for healthcare services in the future. This could make it well worth looking beyond the short term headwinds it is facing and focusing on the bigger picture.
