Objective: To estimate the effect of Seguro Popular Program (SP) on the probability of health spending (HE), the excessive expenditure on health (EEH) and the amount of health spending. Materials and methods. Cross-sectional analysis was carried out using data from the ENSANUT 2012. Propensity score matching was used to estimate the effect of SP (n=12.250). We estimated the average effect on SP homes (treated) and differences in median spending.
Results: SP reduces the likelihood of HE in 3.6 and 7.1% in households with patients diagnosed with DM and/or hypertension, respectively. The reduction in EEH was 36% at national level. This reduction was 46.5 and 41.7% among households with hospitalized patients and those reporting a sick member.
Conclusions: SP has a positive effect, protecting households from having either HE or EEH among those with greater health needs. However, there are still some challenges for the SP, which include improving access to services for low-income population.