El sector salud en Colombia: impacto del SGSSS después de más de una década de la reforma

Abstract

"This article evaluates Colombia's health reform implemented during the early nineties. Specifically, the effect of the introduction and increase in coverage of the subsidized regime on access to health services, health results, chronic illness treatment, and quality of service, is studied. In order to mitigate any bias due to observable and non-observable characteristics of the insured and non-insured, a wealth index is calculated and used in different empirical specifications. The study concludes that the subsidized regime has had an impact on the majority of variables on which a quick and direct impact was expected: prenatal and postnatal controls increased and out-of-pocket expenditures on hospitalizations and prescription drugs decreased. Likewise, positive impacts were observed on children's nutrition and the prevalence of certain illnesses among this population. However, there is no evidence that the subsidized regime has had an impact on quality of service or infant mortality."