Economic Analysis of Non-Communicable Diseases

ABSTRACT

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are increasingly responsible for serious health and economic burdens to governments around the world. We examine both the costs of obtaining medical care and the costs associated with being unable to work, while discussing the methodological issues of particular studies. The results suggest that NCDs pose a heavy financial burden on many affected households; poor households are the most financially affected when they seek care. Medicines are usually the largest component of costs and the use of originator brand medicines leads to higher than necessary expenses. Most NCDs in all countries stem from risk factors including tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, and the over-consumption of saturated fat, sugar and salt, and lack of physical activity. Because treatment of these diseases is expensive, prevention is highly cost-effective. One way for governments to respond to the growing burden of NCDs is through the use of public health law in order to reduce exposure of their populations to these risk factors.

There are many effective ways in which public health law can be utilised to influence these risk factors. These may include litigation against industry, advertising or marketing restrictions, or taxation or pricing restrictions, all of which have proven remarkably effective in reducing risk factors. However, it may be politically difficult or unfeasible for individual local governments to pursue these types of legislation on their own, in the absence of more over-arching powers. This paper instead concentrates on four types of potential legislation highlighted in the recent Welsh consultation on public health law. These include: 1) extending the requirement to use Health Impact Assessments; 2) imposing a statutory duty on a range of bodies to reduce health inequalities; 3) legislation to bring about a renewed focus on prevention of ill health; and 4) legislation to strengthen community action around health protection and...