Improving insurance coverage to avoid catastrophic health expenditures in Mexico
Estimation Year
1994
Actual Policy Use
When the first NHA estimation was performed in 1994, it was used to complement an ongoing health system study concerned with sustaining health reform initiatives. NHA allowed for a comprehensive analysis of private health spending that had never been done before. In its provision of private health spending data, NHA identified catastrophic health expenditures in low-income groups. Catastrophic spending refers to household spending on health care that exceeds 50 percent of household disposable income. The breakdown of such expenditures has been used to propose a new insurance scheme to cover low-income groups that lack other insurance and thus avoid catastrophic expenditure. This project is currently in an exploratory stage (information on this new scheme is available on www.ssa.gob.mx).
Source
Patricia Hernandez, Former NHA team member of Mexico
