© Fokussiert
A visual pun of dice arranged in a row with the first die showing both an H and W followed by the next five spelling out EALTH
© Credits

Health taxes

    Overview

      Health taxes are levied on products that have a negative public health impact, for example tobacco, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). These taxes are considered win-win-win policies because they save lives and prevent disease while advancing health equity and mobilising revenue for the general budget. They can also be used for specific priorities such as financing universal health coverage (UHC) or highly cost-effective yet underutilised population health measures. 

      The aim of health tax policy is to reduce the consumption of products deemed risk factors for noncommunicable diseases by making them less affordable through higher prices. This is achieved with regular tax increases large enough to result in real price increases greater than economic growth.

      Excise taxes are the most effective tax measure for promoting health because they change the price a harmful product relative to other goods and can be easily increased over time.

      Consumption is reduced best with taxes based on the quantity (known as specific taxes) of an unhealthy product (such as packs of cigarettes) or its unhealthy ingredient (such as pure alcohol or sugar) rather than taxes based on the product’s value. 

        Impact

        Raising health taxes is a SMART policy because it:

        Saves lives

        Tobacco, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages taxes are all effective and cost-effective ways of reducing consumption, preventing diseases and injuries and saving lives.

        Mobilises revenue

        Health taxes can be a revenue booster over the short and medium term. Importantly, health taxation is also more inclusive and pro-growth than alternative sources of revenue.

        Addresses health inequities

        In lower- and middle-income countries, lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher risk of noncommunicable diseases and higher rates of tobacco use and alcohol consumption. Accordingly, the net impact of health taxes is progressive once one fully accounts for the distribution of health benefits, income losses averted and reductions in catastrophic healthcare costs.

        Reduces burdens on health systems

        An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure: health taxes are also a high-return investment in averted healthcare expenditure and increased workforce participation. 

        Targets noncommunicable disease risk factors for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.

        By targeting noncommunicable disease risk factors with health taxes, countries can progress their achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3.4, which calls for a one-third reduction of premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases by 2030. 

        WHO response

        Countries are increasingly interested in using health taxes to achieve their health, revenue and equity objectives but require assistance with framing, designing, implementing and administering these measures. WHO’s response leverages its unique methodological expertise, technical capacity and country-level relationships established over more than a decade of work on tobacco taxation.

        WHO divides its response into three interconnected areas of work.

        • Technical assistance to help governments seeking to adopt, reform or evaluate health tax measures. This tailored assistance helps Member States address challenges raised by providing, for example, tax system diagnostics, country-specific modelling for the impact of health tax reforms and independent evaluations of industry arguments.
        • Capacity building engages regulators and policymakers on an ongoing basis in their framing and prioritisation of health taxes including the development of plans for progressing, implementing and evaluating health tax policies.
        • Global goods build on the latest evidence base to support country level work by defining best practices, guiding policy development, detailing technical requirements and providing data to support and benchmark policy progress. 

        Latest publications

        All →
        WHO manual on sugar-sweetened beverage taxation policies to promote healthy diets

        Obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have been steadily increasing globally, and with them, a pressing need to implement effective...

        Saving lives and mobilizing revenue

        This issues brief was jointly prepared by WHO and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and aims to provide legislators and their staff with a...

        Policy, system and practice response to alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic in seven countries of the WHO African Region. Brief 9, October 2022

        This Snapshot describes and synthesizes the policy changes in alcohol policies, systems and practices adopted by seven African countries in response to...

        A public health perspective on alcohol establishments: licensing, density and locations. Brief 8, 
November 2022

        In off-premise establishments that sell other goods along with alcohol, customers are more likely to “bundle” the purchase of alcohol with...