The Economic Crisis and its Impact on Health and Health Care in Latin America and the Caribbean

The economic crisis that struck most Latin American and Caribbean countries beginning in 1982 has caused sharp reductions in domestic investment and in imports; domestic consumption has been less affected, while public sector spending has responded in different degrees in different countries. In general, public spending on health decreased, sometimes quite dramatically, but some countries were able to maintain the real value of noninvestment spending for health by central governments. It is much harder to tell what may have happened to output of health services, and still harder to know how health status has been affected. Scattered evidence suggests two conclusions. First, worsened economic conditions can seriously damage health status, with effects on infant mortality and on the patterns of disease and death, especially for children. Second, these repercussions do not have to occur, and public programs designed specifically to maintain basic health services and to assure adequate nutrition are effective in offsetting the worst consequences of economic hardship.