Health Policy Assessment: Applications of Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Methodology in Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition

Detailed methods for the broader economic evaluation of health policies are presented in this chapter. Extended cost-effectiveness analyses (ECEAs) build on cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) by assessing consequences in both the health and nonhealth domains. The ECEA approach proves novel in that it includes equity and nonhealth benefits (FRP) in the economic evaluation of health policies, which enables multiple criteria to factor in the decision-making process. More important, the ECEA approach enables the design of benefits packages, such as essential universal health care and the highest-priority package, based on the quantitative inclusion of information about how much nonhealth benefits can be bought, in addition to how much health can be bought, per dollar expenditure on health care. Some health policies will rank higher on one metric relative to another. ECEA allows policy makers to take both health and nonhealth outcomes into account when making decisions and thus to target scarce health care resources more effectively toward specific policy objectives.