Seminarios

09
Oct

Claudio A. Mora-García, INCAE Business School en Costa Rica

“Can Primary Healthcare Coverage Improve Health Outcomes? Evidence from Costa Rica”

Presenta:  Claudio A. Mora-García (Ph.D. en Economía, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; investigador INCAE Business School en Costa Rica)

Lugar:  Sala P-301, Edificio Placa (Diagonal Paraguay 257)

Coautora: Andrea Prado

Resumen: Many Latin American countries reformed their Health Sectors during the second half of the 20th century as part of state modernization. However, there is little to no causal evidence on the effects of these Latin-American reforms over mortality while many countries continue funding primary care programs. This paper studies the Costa Rican Health Reform, which began in 1994 and reorganized the Costa Rican health sector into primary care working groups called EBAIS. This is one of the few programs in Latin-America whose implementation was rolled-out throughout the territory. I show that the implementation date on each region is arguably exogenous. I was able to construct a dataset on the implementation years of the Reform, and the amount of EBAIS by region over time. I combine this information with vital statistics and household surveys in an event-study framework to identify the effect of the reform on age-adjusted mortality, by cause of death. The results show that, within five years, the Reform reduced age-adjusted mortality rates, mostly among children and older adults, while other population groups did not have the same benefit. Results are robust, and explained only by the opening of EBAIS. The EBAIS show diminishing marginal returns on the reduction in age-adjusted mortality rates. One of the main channels was higher access to a public healthcare center, especially among pregnant women. Further research will focus on emergency services at hospitals. Primary healthcare is very effective in reducing mortality, even in a country with very low mortality rates, but the optimal number of primary care units depends on its marginal cost.

Datos del Seminario

Fecha de inicio:
09 de Octubre, 2019 | 12:30 hrs.

Fecha de término
09 de Octubre, 2019 | 14:00 hrs.