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January 20, 2010
4th Latin American and Caribbean Congress on Health Economics/1st Chilean Conference on Health Economics (2010)
Location: Santiago, Chile
Theme: The contribution of health economics to the equitable access to health care in a context of crisis
Dates: 20th to 22nd of January 2010
Introduction:
The 4th Latin American and Caribbean Congress on Health Economics will take place in a context of worldwide economic crisis. The most moderate forecasts indicate that in 2009, for the first time after 60 years, the world GDP growth will be negative. Recovery is not expected to take place before the first half of 2010, and then only if all efforts converge. In any case, it is a difficult economic time for Latin American countries that have shown vulnerability and dependence on the economic outputs of relatively more developed countries. In summary, globalization also means the globalization of economic imbalances when these happen.
In a picture like this, it is difficult for the health sector to stay untouched. Previous experience shows that economic crisis strongly impacts the sustainability of social expenditure. For this reason, it is unlikely that the ratio of health expenditure to GDP can be maintained at levels observed in the last years. This is happening in the context of more pressure on healthcare due to the general deterioration of the quality of life of the Latin American population, and in the context of reduction of contributors to health insurance (in countries with this modality).
Because of this, the 4th congress slogan is “the contribution of health economics to the equitable access to health care in a context of crisis”, thus, emphasizing the policies and tools that could come to play to counteract the effects of the crisis. We want this congress to contribute to the design of strong democratic policies, which promote higher solidarity in health expenditure and at the same time are efficient.
For AES Chile and the Ministry of Health, the organization of the congress constitutes an honor and a challenge that allow us to strengthen the knowledge in this area in our country.
For more information please see http://www.mednet.cl/link.cgi/Eventos/CongresoEconomia/
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact us at marianelacastillo@hotmail.com.
Dr. Camilo Cid Pedraza
President of AES Chile
