Tobacco taxes in China InHEA

Tobacco taxes in China: impacts on
smokers’ health and finance

Dr. Rachel A. Nugent, Vice President, Global NCDs

Indonesia Health Economics Association
July 29, 2016
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
1

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Outline

Background
A new perspective on the economic evaluation of health
policies: Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (ECEA)

ECEA case study

Tobacco tax in China

Conclusions
Application of ECEA to global health priority setting

2

Background

A new perspective on the economic
evaluation of health policies: Extended
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (ECEA)

Disease Control Priorities History

• 1993 World Development
Report
• Disease Control Priorities in
Developing Countries, Second
Edition 2006 (DCP2)

• Disease Control Priorities, 3rd
Edition 2015-2016 (DCP3)
4

Disease Control Priorities, 3rd Edition
DCP3 Volume Topics
1. Essential Surgery - 2015
2.

Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health -2016

3.

Cancer - 2015

4.

Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders - 2015

5. Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Renal and Endocrine Disorders 2016

6.

HIV/AIDS, STIs, Tuberculosis and Malaria - 2016

7.

Injury Prevention and Environmental Health - 2016

8.

Child and Adolescent Development - 2016

9. Disease Control Priorities: Improving Health & Reducing Poverty 2016
@dcpthree | #dcp3

5

Motivation: from HTA to HPA?
From: Health Technology Assessment (HTA)



Cost-effectiveness of technical interventions targeting
specific diseases (e.g. ART for AIDS)

To: Health Policy Assessment (HPA)


Resources allocated across different delivery platforms:
e.g. routine immunization vs. mass immunization
campaigns



Governments use distinct instruments of policy:
e.g. public finance, taxation, legislation



Multiple criteria involved in decision-making:
e.g. burden, costs,

effectiveness, equity, medical impoverishment

6

Objective: Health Policy Assessment, with dimensions of
equity & medical impoverishment
Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (ECEA)

(1)

Distributional consequences across
distinct strata of populations
(e.g. socio-economic status, geographical setting,
gender)

(2)

7

Financial risk protection: quantify

household medical impoverishment
averted by policy

Verguet, Laxminarayan & Jamison. Health Economics
2015

Extended Cost-effectiveness
Analysis (ECEA) Approach

Inclusion of the efficient purchase of equity & nonhealth benefits into economic evaluations

8

ECEA Approach
Examine specific health policy
(e.g. public finance for rotavirus vaccine)

Health gains

(e.g. diarrhea-related

deaths averted)

Poorest
9

Poor

Household
expenditure
averted

(e.g. private diarrhea
treatment averted)

Middle

Financial risk
protection
benefits
(e.g. household

impoverishment
averted)

Rich

Richest

Financial risk protection: prevention of medical
impoverishment

Medical impoverishment
When confronted with expensive medical expenditures, poor
people can face high out-of-pocket (OOP) payments and fall
into poverty

10

Measures of financial risk protection

Threshold-based measures



Number of cases of poverty averted




Estimate number of individuals no longer crossing poverty line
because of medical expenses

Catastrophic expenditures averted


Estimate number of individuals no longer crossing catastrophic
threshold (medical expenditures > 0.40 subsistence income)

Money-metric value of insurance
provided

11


Estimate a ‘risk premium’

Verguet, Laxminarayan & Jamison. Health Economics 2015

ECEA case study – Tobacco
tax in China
Verguet S, Gauvreau CL, Mishra S, et al. The
consequences of tobacco tax on household health
and finances in rich and poor smokers in China: an
extended cost-effectiveness analysis. Lancet Global
Health 2015; 3:e206-216.
12

Tax is the single most effective tobacco control policy

Tobacco tax is
vastly underused
in LMICs
(e.g. China, India,

Indonesia,
Russia)

France: cigarette consumption & inflation-adjusted price
(Hill et al. 2010)
13

One specific policy issue with tobacco tax: it is often
regarded as regressive
Most assessments to date assume individuals with different
income to be responsive to tax increase in the same way!

Use ECEA to examine regressivity of increase
in tobacco tax

14

Tobacco in China (1)

Tobacco prevalence (males)



50%; 300 million smokers
15 cigarettes per day; varies slightly by socioeconomic
status

Tobacco-related mortality




15

Risk of premature mortality from smoking = 50%
1M annual deaths (out of 6M globally)
Stroke (46%); heart disease (23%); neoplasm (20%);
COPD (11%)

Sources: GATS (2010); Jha and Peto (2014); GBD 2010

Tobacco in China (2)

Out-of-pocket expenditures



Only 50% of inpatient healthcare costs (e.g. cancer,
stroke costs) reimbursed by insurance schemes
Stroke ($2,000), heart disease ($11,000), cancer
($14,000)

Price elasticity of cigarette
consumption (assumed based on reviews)




16

- 0.40 on average
- 0.50 (poorest) to - 0.30 (richest)
Youth (under 25 year-olds) are twice as price elastic

Sources: Yip et al. (2012); Hu et al. (2010); IARC (2010)

Price hike scenario

Increase by 50% retail price of tobacco
Price of cigarette pack: $0.74 -> $1.11
Health
benefits

Poorest
< $1700

17

Generation
of excise
tax
revenues

Poor

$1700 < < $3100

Changes in
household
cigarette
expenditure

Middle

$3100 < < $4900

OOP
tobaccorelated
disease
expenditure
averted

Rich

$4900 < < $7600

Financial
risk
protection
benefits

Richest
> $7600

Decrease in smokers & health benefits

Follow up over 50 years
Future
newborns

Future
(< 15)
Smokers
Poorest

Youth (1524)
Smokers
Poor

Price hike
Future (< 15) & Youth (15-24)
quitters



18

• Twice as responsive
97-100% risk reduction premature mortality

Middle

Adult (> 25)
Smokers
Rich

Future
Premature
dead

Richest

Health benefits estimated from quitting:
Participation elasticity ~ ½ price elasticity



Sources: IARC (2010); Hu et al. (2010); Jha et al. (2012)

Adult (> 25) quitters

85% (25-44) to 25% (> 65) risk reduction premature
mortality depending on age at quitting

Excise tax revenues & changes in household cigarette
expenditures
Follow up over 50 years
Future
(< 15)
Smokers

Future
newborns

Poorest

Price hike

Youth (1524)
Smokers
Poor

Rich

Future
premature
dead

Richest

Price elasticity of cigarette consumption

(future (< 15) & youth (15-24) smokers twice as responsive)

Added excise tax
revenues

19

Middle

Adult (> 25)
Smokers

Sources: IARC (2010), Jha et al. (2012)

Changes in household
cigarette expenditures

OOP expenditures averted & financial risk protection

Follow up over 50 years
Future
newborns

Future
(< 15)
Smokers
Poorest

Youth (1524)
Smokers
Poor

Price hike
Future (< 15) & Youth (15-24)
quitters


20

• Twice as responsive
97-100% risk reduction of tobacco
OOP expenditures

Middle

Adult (> 25)
Smokers
Rich

Future
premature
dead

Richest

FRP benefits estimated from quitting:
Participation elasticity ~ ½ price elasticity



Adult (> 25) quitters

85% (25-44) to 25% (> 65) risk reduction of
tobacco OOP expenditures

Sources: IARC (2010); Hu et al. (2010); Jha et al. (2012); Jha et al. (2013); Doll et al. (2004); Yip et al. (2012)

Results (1): premature deaths averted

3
2
1
0

Total: 13 million
(95% UI: 11-15)

Deaths averted (million)

4

5

Premature deaths averted

I

II

III
Income quintile

21

IV

V

Results (2): additional excise tax revenues

Additional tax revenues (% of income)

4

5

150

2

3

%

100
50

Revenues (US$ billion)

6

7

200

Additional tax revenues

0

0

1

Total: 700 $ billion
(95% UI: 600-800)
I

II

III
Income quintile

22

IV

V

I

II

III
Income quintile

IV

V

Results (3): changes in household tobacco expenditures

Changes in cigarette expenditures (% of income)
6
4
0

I

II

III
Income quintile

23

2

%

100
50

IV

-2

Total: 370 $ billion
(95% UI: 230-500)

0

Expenditures (US$ billion)

150

Changes in cigarette expenditures

V

I

II

III
Income quintile

IV

V

Results (4): financial risk protection

Financial risk protection

1
0.5

Insurance (US$ billion)

6
2

4

Total: 1.5 $ billion
(95% UI: 1.0-2.1)

0

Total: 23 $ billion
(95% UI: 19-28)
0

Expenditures averted (US$ billion)

8

1.5

Tobacco-related disease treatment expenditures averted

I

II

III
Income quintile

24

IV

V

I

II

III
Income quintile

IV

V

Pro-poor angles of tobacco tax
50% tobacco price increase,
China

95% uncertainty
contours

500

1000

1500

I
II
III
IV
V

0

Financial risk protection ($ million)

2000

I = Bottom income quintile

0

1

2

3

Premature deaths averted (millions)

25

4

5

Conclusions

Application of ECEA to global health priority setting

26

7

8

Rotavirus vaccine (1)
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (2)
Measles vaccine (3)
Diarrhea treatment (4)
Pneumonia treatment (5)
Malaria treatment (6)
Cesarean section (7)
Tuberculosis treatment (8)
Hypertension treatment (9)

80

9
4
5
6

60

1

40

($1 per dose)

2
($1 per dose)

1

20

ECEA for:
priority setting
within the
health sector
(1)

Number of poverty cases averted

100

Financial risk protection afforded & health gains, per $100,000 spent

($2.5 per dose)

2

3

0

($3.5 per dose)

0

100

200

300

Number of deaths averted

27

Verguet, Olson, Babigumira, et al. Lancet Global Health 2015

400

Priority setting beyond the health sector
Estimate efficient purchase of poverty reduction
benefits by health policies i.e. poverty cases
averted per health policy $ invested
Poverty
averted
per health
policy
$1M
invested

1
0
0
0

Poverty
averted per
education
policy
$1M invested

8
0
0

Poverty
averted per
transport policy
$1M invested

Intersectoral comparison by Ministry of Finance &
Development
28

6
0
0

More Information

Rachel A. Nugent
Vice President of Global Non-communicable Diseases
rnugent@rti.org

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