| Abstract: |
The Colombian reform to the health system (Law 100 of 1993) established, as
strategy to facilitate the access, the universality of a health insurance that
is acquired by means of the quotation in the contributive regime or by means
of the gratuitous affiliation to the subsidized regime, in order to cover all
the population with a unique plan of benefits that includes services in all
levels of complexity. In this paper we intend to cover the main streamlined
facts of the reform as far as coverage and access of the insurance, by means
of logit models, the determinants of the enrollment and the access are
considered, using data from the Living Standards Surveys of 1997 and 2003. It
stands out that the coverage rose from 20% of the population in 1993 to 60% in
2003, although it seems very difficult to reach the universality; the
structure and evolution of the coverage show that both regimes complement each
other, while the contributive one has greater presence in the cities and among
the population with formal employment, the subsidized one has greater weight
among the rural population and in those with low levels of income; on the
other hand, the insurance has advantages for the subsidized population, with a
greater probability for use of the services, although the plan offers less
benefits than the contributive one there are some barriers for the access. |