Assessing the economic value of public health programs based on risk: the case of the cancer plan in France

This article intends to understand how health risk is actually valued and managed in public health programs through the case study of the cancer plan in France.

A literature review has been carried out with a particular focus on major health risk characteristics from a multidisciplinary perspective. To assess the economic value of the cancer plan in France, the study uses secondary data on the costs of cancer that have been collected and published by the National Institute for Cancer for 2004.

A model is designed to evaluate health risk components that can be classified into four main categories relating the level at which risk is analyzed (individual or population) to the main type of intervention needed (preventive or curative) to cope with it. The findings show that actions and interventions dealing with prevention, education, and research represent 3.54% of the total costs of the cancer plan in France while 96.46% relates to health care and economic losses.

The proposed classification of health risk components gives more insight and understanding of risks associated with diseases and illness and proposes an operational representation of actions and costs related to the risks. The methodology proposed might be of significant interest to those involved in making health-care financing decisions.