Does Social Security Support for Medical Care Weaken Public Health Programs?

Abstract

Social security programs for medical care in Latin American countries have long been regarded as rivals to the Ministries of Health. Although they typically cover only a small fraction of the population theoretically served by the Ministries, they often have larger health budgets; on a per beneficiary basis, their expenditures are invariably much higher. Analysis of the relative strengths of social security programs (percentage of economically active persons covered and national per capita outlays), in twelve Latin American countries, however, shows them to have no correlation (virtually zero) to the strengths of Ministries of Health (percentage of national budgets devoted to public health). It appears that both social security and Ministry of Health expenditures correlate in a strongly positive direction with a country's per capita gross domestic product. There is no evidence that stronger social security programs are associated with weaker Ministries of Health.