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Health sector reform in Argentina: a cautionary tale

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  • Lloyd-Sherlock, Peter

Abstract

In November 2002 the World Bank published a report on the Argentine health sector. The report accurately portrays the complexity and severity of the problems facing the health care system. It stresses that these problems are not purely a product of the country's economic collapse, noting that the system has suffered from long-standing structural problems and inefficiencies. Curiously, the report makes no mention of the leading role played by the World Bank in health reform efforts during the 1990s. This paper demonstrates that these reforms did much to worsen pre-existing weaknesses of the sector. The paper criticises the content of the reform agenda and the manner in which it was produced, arguing that these were reforms in which considerations of public health were less significant than conformity to the wider model of neo-liberal social and economic development prevailing at the time. It also highlights problems of implementing the reform agenda, which reduced the coherency of the reforms. The paper goes on to examine the impact of the crisis, noting links with the preceding reforms. It identifies a number of insights and lessons of potential value to other countries which are pursuing similar policies.

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  • Lloyd-Sherlock, Peter, 2005. "Health sector reform in Argentina: a cautionary tale," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(8), pages 1893-1903, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:60:y:2005:i:8:p:1893-1903
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Reich, Michael R., 1995. "The politics of health sector reform in developing countries: three cases of pharmaceutical policy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 47-77.
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    1. Suraratdecha, Chutima & Okunade, Albert A., 2006. "Measuring operational efficiency in a health care system: A case study from Thailand," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 2-23, June.
    2. Cavagnero, Eleonora, 2008. "Health sector reforms in Argentina and the performance of the health financing system," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 88-99, October.
    3. Willington Manuel & Alegría Alexander, 2012. "Collusion in a One-Period Insurance Market with Adverse Selection," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-32, April.
    4. Bucher, Silke & Jäger, Urs & Prado, Andrea M., 2016. "Scaling private health care for the base of the pyramid: Expanding versus broadening service offerings in developing nations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 736-750.

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