International Journal of Health Policy and Management

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

“First, Do No Harm”: Have the Health Impacts of Government Bills on Tax Legislation Been Assessed in Finland?

Document Type : Short Communication

Authors
Natassa Aaltonen 1
Miisa Chydenius 1
Lauri Kokkinen 1, 2, 3
1 Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
2 Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
3 Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Tampere, Finland.
10.15171/ijhpm.2018.39
Abstract
As taxation is one of the key public policy domains influencing population health, and as there is a legal, strategic, and programmatic basis for health impact assessment (HIA) in Finland, we analyzed all 235 government bills on tax legislation over the years 2007–2014 to see whether the health impacts of the tax bills had been assessed. We found that health impacts had been assessed for 13 bills, bills dealing with tobacco, alcohol, confectionery, and energy legislation and that four of these impact assessments included impacts on health inequalities between social classes. Based on our theoretical classification, the health impacts of 40 other tax bills should have been evaluated.

Keywords
Health in All Policies
Healthy Public Policy
Inter-Sectoral Action
Taxation
Finland
Subjects
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International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volume 7, Issue 8
2018
Pages 696-698

  • Received Date 07 December 2017
  • Revised Date 14 March 2018
  • Accepted Date 17 April 2018
  • First Published Date 01 August 2018
  • Published Date 01 August 2018