Linking health and finance ministries to improve taxes on unhealthy products Relier les ministères de la Santé et des Finances pour renforcer les taxes sur les produits nocifs pour la santé Vinculación de los ministerios de Sanidad y Hacienda para mejorar los impuestos sobre los productos perjudiciales para la salud ربط وزارتي الصحة والمالية لتحسين الضرائب المفروضة على المنتجات غير الصحية 卫生部和财政部联手提高不健康产品相关税收 Взаимодействие министерства здравоохранения и министерства финансов в деле улучшения использования налогов, взимаемых с продукции, не поддерживающей здоровый образ жизни

ABSTRACT

The World Health Organization recommends economic measures such as taxes on tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods and beverages as part of a comprehensive strategy for prevention of noncommunicable diseases. However, progress in adopting these so-called health taxes has been hampered, in part, by different approaches and perceptions of key issues in different sectors of government. Health promotion is the responsibility of health policy-makers, while taxation is the mandate of finance ministries. Thus, strengthening cooperation between health and finance policy-makers is central to the successful adoption and implementation of effective health taxes. In this paper we identify the shared concerns of finance and health policy-makers about health taxes with the aim of enabling more effective cross-sector cooperation towards both additional financing for health systems and changes in unhealthy behaviours. For example, new approaches to supporting health taxation include the growing priority for health-system financing due to the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases, and the need to address the health and economic damage due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. As a result, high-level efforts to achieve progress on health taxes are gaining momentum and represent important progress towards using the combined expertise of health and finance policy-makers.