Resources Repository
-
ReviewPublication 2016Strengthening Cost-Effectiveness Analysis for Public Health Policy
Many important opportunities to improve health lie outside the health sector and involve improving the …
Many important opportunities to improve health lie outside the health sector and involve improving the conditions in which we live and work: safe design and maintenance of roads, bridges, train tracks, and airports; control of environmental pollutants; occupational safety; healthy buildings; a safe and healthy food supply; safe manufacture of consumer products; a healthy social environment; and others. Faced with the overwhelming array of possibilities, U.S. decision makers need help identifying those that can contribute the…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Preferences/Values | Food/Agriculture | Economics/Finance | Costing Methods | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Social Determinants | Environmental Health | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2000Discipline of Cost-Benefit Analysis
Cost-benefit analysis is a general discipline, based on the use of some foundational principles, which …
Cost-benefit analysis is a general discipline, based on the use of some foundational principles, which are not altogether controversial, but have nevertheless considered plausibility. Divisiveness increases as various additional requirements are imposed. There is a trade-off here between easier usability (through locked-up formulae) and more general acceptability (through allowing parametric variations). The paper, by Amartya Sen, examines and scrutinizes the merits and demerits of these additional requirements. The particular variant of cost-benefit approach that is…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Preferences/Values | Government/Law | Economics/Finance | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Culture/Society -
ArticlePublication 2018Trading Bankruptcy for Health: A Discrete-Choice Experiment
This article in Value in Health evaluates the importance of improved health as compared to …
This article in Value in Health evaluates the importance of improved health as compared to improved financial risk protection in the general United States population. Using a discrete-choice experiment, it finds that 31.3% of the population values cure at all costs, and 8.5% of the population use financial solvency to dominate medical decision making. This study shares insight to the US population values and trade-offs between health outcomes and financial health, and highlights the difficult…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Preferences/Values | Economics/Finance | Health Outcomes | Health Systems | Culture/Society | Health/Medicine | North America -
ReportPublication 2017Underestimated Cost of the Opioid Crisis
This report on the opioid public health crisis was released by the White House Council …
This report on the opioid public health crisis was released by the White House Council on Economic Advisors (CEA) in November 2017. It corrects previous estimates of related costs by adding the value of the associated deaths. Earlier estimates focused on medical and other expenditures, while the new report also includes estimates of the value that individuals place on reducing their own risks of premature mortality. The report notes that, in 2015, over 33,000 Americans…
Preferences/Values | Government/Law | Economics/Finance | Costing Methods | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Mental Health | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2017Revealed Willingness-to-Pay vs. Standard Cost-Effectiveness Thresholds
This study estimates the cost-effectiveness thresholds (CETs) of 16 HIV programs in South Africa. The …
This study estimates the cost-effectiveness thresholds (CETs) of 16 HIV programs in South Africa. The use of CETs based on a country’s income per capita has been criticized for not being grounded in theory or evidence, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). An alternative has been produced for South Africa, based on estimates of life years saved and the country’s committed HIV budget. The authors used a previously -published optimization method to estimate CETs,…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Preferences/Values | Economics/Finance | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2017When Cost-Effective Interventions Are Unaffordable
Many health interventions deemed cost-effective are not affordable. Despite the importance of affordability to policymakers, …
Many health interventions deemed cost-effective are not affordable. Despite the importance of affordability to policymakers, little of the cost-effectiveness literature in global health addresses this issue. Budget impact analysis (BIA) describes an intervention's short-term costs and savings from the payer's perspective. This paper assesses the current use of budget impact analysis (BIA) and cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) in health economic assessments conducted for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The authors recommend steps researchers and policymakers can…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Government/Law | Economics/Finance | Costing Methods | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global -
ArticlePublication 2017Making Fair Choices on the Path to UHC: Applying Principles to Difficult Cases
Progress toward universal health coverage (UHC) requires making difficult trade-offs. The World Health Organization (WHO) …
Progress toward universal health coverage (UHC) requires making difficult trade-offs. The World Health Organization (WHO) Consultative Group on Equity and UHC has endorsed the principles for making such decisions. These principles include maximizing population health, priority for the worse off, and shielding people from health-related financial risks. But how should one apply these principles in particular cases, and how should one adjudicate between them when their demands conflict? This article by some members of the…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Government/Law | Economics/Finance | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Health/Medicine | Global -
ReportPublication 2018Estimating the Distributional Impact of Increasing Taxes on Tobacco Products in Armenia
Smoking is considered the leading risk factor for mortality among the Armenian population. The authors …
Smoking is considered the leading risk factor for mortality among the Armenian population. The authors conducted an extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) on increases in the excise tax on cigarettes in Armenia. Based on the World Health Organization recommendations, they analyzed the impact of a 75% increase of excise tax on the retail price of cigarettes. The ECEA found large health and financial benefits to the excise tax. It averted about 88,000 premature deaths, US$63 million of OOP…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Government/Law | Economics/Finance | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Health/Medicine | Europe -
ArticlePublication 2017Policy Makers, the International Community and the Population: Case Study on HIV/AIDS
A four-period game is developed between a policy maker, the international community, and the population. …
A four-period game is developed between a policy maker, the international community, and the population. This research supplements, through implementing strategic interaction, earlier research analyzing "one player at a time." The first two players distribute funds between preventing and treating diseases. The population reacts by degree of risky behavior which may cause no disease, disease contraction, recovery, sickness/death. More funds to prevention implies less disease contraction but higher death rate given disease contraction. The cost…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Government/Law | Economics/Finance | Decision Psychology | Mathematical Models | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Global Governance | Health/Medicine | Global