After Chile's health reform: increase in coverage and access, decline in hospitalization and death rates

Abstract

In 2005 the government of Chile passed comprehensive health reform. The law mandated coverage by public and private health insurers for selected medical interventions related to fifty-six priority diseases and conditions. This paper presents previously unpublished evidence on various consequences of the reform. It also presents a first, partial evaluation of the reform's impact on access to care, treatment outcomes, hospitalization rates, and medical leave rates for six chronic diseases. For some of those diseases, such as hypertension, types 1 and 2 diabetes, and depression, we find that the reform was linked to growing access to services and increased coverage. For those diseases and for childhood epilepsy and HIV/AIDS, the hospital case-fatality rate dropped.