Climate change, biodiversity loss, and global environmental degradation are undermining public health. More specifically, the increase in periods marked by high temperatures and their persistence could pose a major risk to a large portion of the population and drastically limit human activity. Yet heat waves are underrepresented in analyses of extreme weather events, particularly in economic assessments. This lack of research, combined with the public’s low perception of heat-related risk, limits the implementation of adaptation measures, even though the effects of heat waves are largely preventable. This article presents the evolution of the overall economic impact of the health effects of heat waves observed in France between 1974 and 2020.