One of the greatest success stories in our societies is that people are living longer, life expectancy at birth being now above 80 years. Whereas the lengthening of life opens huge opportunities for individuals if extra years are spent in prosperity and good health, it is however often regarded...

The health landscape in Latin America and the Caribbean is changing quickly. The region is undergoing a demographic and epidemiological transition in which health problems are highly concentrated on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). In light of this, the region faces two main challenges: (1)...

The health landscape in Latin America and the Caribbean is changing quickly. The region is undergoing a demographic and epidemiological transition in which health problems are highly concentrated on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). In light of this, the region faces two main challenges: (1)...

Introducción: El virus sincitial respiratorio (VSR) afecta a niños de toda las edades, pero tiene consecuencias más serias en los prematuros. El objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar la costo-efectividad de palivizumab para la profilaxis del VSR en recién nacidos menores de 35 semanas en Colombia.

La evaluación económica es una herramienta que, mediante la comparación de los costos y beneficios de los diferentes programas y servicios de salud, proporciona información para determinar cuáles merecen mayor prioridad. Al tiempo que se consolida la evaluación económica como apoyo para...

We exploit a sharp change in the likelihood that an individual is covered by health insurance when he/she turns 19 years of age to study how health insurance affects reported health status. We find that an individual is 6 percentage points less likely to have health insurance when he/she turns...

The first major insurance expansion of the Affordable Care Act – a provision requiring insurers to allow dependents to remain on parents’ health insurance until turning 26 – took effect in September 2010. We estimate this mandate's impacts on numerous outcomes related to health care...

This paper analyzes Thailand's 2001 healthcare reform, "30 Baht." The program increased funding available to hospitals to care for the poor and reduced copays to 30 Baht (~$0.75). Our estimates suggest the supply-side funding of the program increased healthcare utilization, especially among the...

This paper exploits a sharp reduction in patient cost sharing at age 70 in Japan, using a regression discontinuity design to examine its effect on utilization, health, and financial risk arising from out-of-pocket expenditures. Due to the national policy, cost sharing is 60–80 percent lower at...

This paper uses the rollout of the first Community Health Centers (CHCs) to study the longer-term health effects of increasing access to primary care. Within ten years, CHCs are associated with a reduction in age-adjusted mortality rates of 2 percent among those 50 and older. The implied 7 to 13...