The impact of subsidized health insurance in the access to and use of health care in Medellín, Colombia

Subsidized health insurance is a public policy aimed at improving access to health care of the poor in Colombia. To evaluate the impact of this policy in Medellín, we use the 2008 Quality of Life Survey and, with the propensity score matching technique, we find a comparison group similar to the target group. Stratification, nearest neighbor, and kernel density estimators are used to calculate the size of the impacts. We find that subsidized insurance has positive impacts on access to health care for people over ten years. In children under four years and women aged 15 to 49, positive results were observed in preventive services and hospitalization. In men older than 50 years, negative impacts were found in hospitalization, but those for preventive consultation were positive.