Investigators
Grant Miller - Stanford University

Relative to other age groups, the elderly are more likely to become seriously ill and to face burdensome medical expenditures. They are also more likely to be poor and to have difficulty bearing these costs. Nevertheless, developing countries have historically lacked the public funds and institutions necessary to operate health insurance programs tailored to these needs. As their populations age and they adopt expensive medical technologies, however, developing countries face increasing pressure to create such health insurance programs. In response, many middle-income countries like Colombia have begun experimenting with targeted public-sector health insurance.

The ability of these programs to protect the elderly from financial risk and to promote good health remains unclear. In practice, weak governance and corruption may substantially limit their benefits. Financial barriers to medical care may also be small relative to other obstacles in these settings. More generally, the emphasis that health insurance deserves relative to other potential policy interventions (public health or poverty reduction programs, for example) remains contentious. By examining discontinuities in eligibility formulas for health insurance subsidies, this project will evaluate the consequences of a large health insurance program designed to improve the well-being of the elderly in Colombia.

This study is a seed project for the Center on the Demography and Economics of Health and Aging.

Contact
Tamara L. Sims