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Biased selection within the social health insurance market in Colombia

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  • Ramón Abel Castano
  • Andrés Zambrano

Abstract

Reducing the impact of insurance market failures with regulations such as community-rated premiums, standardized benefit packages and open enrolment, yield limited impact because they create room for selection bias. The Colombian social health insurance system started a market approach in 1993 on the expectation to improve performance of preexisting monopolistic insurance funds by exposing them to competition by new entrants. It is hypothesized that market failures would lead to biased selection favoring new entrants. Two household surveys are analyzed using Self-reported health status and the presence of chronic conditions as indicators of prospective risk of enrolees. Biased selection is found to take place, leading to adverse selection among incumbents, and favorable selection among new entrants. This pattern is observed in 1997 and worsens in 2003. Although the two incumbents analyzed are public organizations, and their size dropped substantially between these two years, fiscal implications in terms of government bailouts are analyzed.*******************************************************************************************************************Las regulaciones como primaje comunitario, paquetes estandarizados y afiliacion abierta, orientados a reducir los impactos de las fallas en los mercados de seguros, tienen un efecto limitado puesto que abren espacio a la selección sesgada. A partir de 1993, el sistema de seguridad social en salud en Colombia fue reformado hacia un enfoque de mercado con la expectativa de mejorar el desempeno de los monopolios preexistentes exponiéndolos a la competencia de nuevos entrantes. La hipótesis que se maneja en el trabajo es que las fallas de mercado pueden llevar a selección sesgada favoreciendo a los nuevos entrantes. Se analizaron dos encuestas de hogares utilizando el estado de salud auto reportado y la presencia de enfermedad crónica como indicadores prospectivos de riesgo de los afiliados. Se encuentra que hay selección sesgada, llevando a selección adversa entre los aseguradores preexistentes, y a selección favorable entre los nuevos entrantes. Este patrón se observa en 1997 y se incrementa en el 2003. Aunque las entidades preexistentes son entidades públicas, y su tamano disminuyó sustancialmente entre estos anos, se analizan sus implicaciones fiscales en términos de financiación adicional por parte del gobierno.

Suggested Citation

  • Ramón Abel Castano & Andrés Zambrano, 2005. "Biased selection within the social health insurance market in Colombia," Borradores de Investigación 2063, Universidad del Rosario.
    • Handle: RePEc:col:000091:002063
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Alvaro J. Riascos & Mauricio Romero & Natalia Serna, 2017. "Risk Adjustment Revisited using Machine Learning Techniques," Documentos CEDE 15601, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    2. Álvaro Riascos & Eduardo Alfonso & Mauricio Romero, 2014. "The Performance of Risk Adjustment Models in Colombian Competitive Health Insurance Market," Documentos CEDE 12062, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    3. Catalina Gutiérrez S. & Nicolás Gómez, 2018. "El sistema de salud colombiano en las próximas décadas: cómo avanzar hacia la sostenibilidad y la calidad en la atención," Cuadernos de Fedesarrollo 16251, Fedesarrollo.
    4. Simón Ramírez Amaya & Adolfo J. Quiroz & Álvaro José Riascos Villegas, 2019. "Regression by clustering using metropolis-hastings," Documentos de Trabajo 18180, Quantil.
    5. Ronald Eduardo Gómez Suárez, 2007. "Cream-Skimming And Risk Adjustment in Colombian Health Insurance System:: The Public Insurer Case," Archivos de Economía 4295, Departamento Nacional de Planeación.
    6. Alejandro Arrieta & Ariadna García Prado & Giota Panopoulou, 2012. "Enrolling the Self-Employed in Mandatory Health Insurance in Colombia: are we missing other factors?," Documentos de Trabajo - Lan Gaiak Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra 1213, Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social Health Insurance; Biased Selection; Market-based reforms; Colombia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • D41 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Perfect Competition

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