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Horizontal inequity in access to health care in four South American cities

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Author Info
Ana I. Balsa () (University of Miami)
Máximo Rossi (Universidad de la República (Uruguay))
Patricia Triunfo (Universidad de la República (Uruguay))

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Abstract

This paper analyzes and compares socioeconomic inequalities in the use of healthcare services by the elderly in four South-American cities: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Santiago (Chile), Montevideo (Uruguay) and San Pablo (Brazil). We use data from SABE, a survey on Health, Well-being and Aging administered in several Latin American cities in 2000. After having accounted for socioeconomic inequalities in healthcare needs, we find socioeconomic inequities favoring the rich in the use of preventive services (mammograms, pap tests, breast examinations, and prostate exams) in all of the studied cities. We also find inequities in the likelihood of having a medical visit in Santiago and Montevideo, and in some measures of quality of access in Santiago, Sao Paulo, and Buenos Aires. Santiago depicts the highest inequities in medical visits and Uruguay the worse indicators in mammograms and pap scans tests. For all cities, inequities in preventive services at least double inequities in other services. We do not find evidence of a trade-off between levels of access and equity in access to healthcare services. The decomposition of healthcare inequalities suggests that inequities within each health system (public or private) are more important than between systems.

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Paper provided by ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality in its series Working Papers with number 131.

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Length: 42 pages
Date of creation: 2009
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Handle: RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2009-131

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Related research
Keywords: inequalities; healthcare; medical visit; preventive services.;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production
I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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This page was last updated on 2009-11-26.

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