Economic impact of smoking on health systems in Latin America : a study of seven countries and its extrapolation to the regional level

Date

2016

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Pan American Health Organization, Washington, D.C.

Abstract

Smoking is responsible for a significant proportion of health spending in Latin America, and tax revenues from cigarette sales are far from covering smoking-attributable health care costs. Countries of the region should strongly consider an increase in tobacco taxes. This research study estimates financial burden in terms of direct medical costs that smoking represents for the health systems of Latin America, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico. Smoking-attributable costs ranged from 0.4% (Mexico and Peru) to 0.9% (Chile) of GDP and from 5.2% (Brazil) to 12.7% (Bolivia) of health expenditures.

Description

Keywords

TOBACCO CONTROL, SMOKING, HEALTH ECONOMICS, MATHEMATICAL MODELS, NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES, TAXATION, SOUTH AMERICA

Citation

Pichon-Riviere, A., Bardach, A., Augustovski, F., Alcaraz, A., Reynales-Shigematsu, L. M., Pinto, M. T., ... & Munarriz, C. L. (2016). Economic impact of smoking on health systems in Latin America: A study of seven countries and its extrapolation to the regional level. Rev Panam Salud Publica, 40(4), 213-221.

DOI