Extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) fundamentally builds on cost-effectiveness analysis and provides quantitative methods for health policy assessment. It examines public policies, whether health or inter-sectoral policies, and policy instruments that have an impact on the health of populations.

ECEA further assesses the health and financial consequences of policies, including financial risk protection and disaggregated outcomes per population stratum of interest.

The ECEA approach permits the inclusion of non-health benefits (financial risk protection) and distributional consequences or equity in the economic evaluation of health policies. It enables the consideration of key criteria into the resource allocation problem and into the design of the health benefits package.