Author(s)

Cristina Gomes

Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, FLACSO Mexico, Population and Develpment, Mexico City, Mexico.

This article discusses the evolution of healthcare systems in Latin American countries, their origins and main characteristics and sources of financing, coverage and the availability of services and human resources from the Donabedian perspective, which also considers indicators of behaviors and preferences and social values underlying healthcare in different societies. The method adopted is the estimation of correlations and principal components to explore how health expenditures, poverty and inequalities are associated with healthcare indicators such as life expectancy, immunizations, treatments offered by health systems in transmissible and chronic diseases, considering indirect indicators of patient’s behaviors and preferences, as well as social values and cultural diversity in Latin American societies. The results show that the expansion and actual availability of immunization, treatments against transmissible diseases and hospital beds are the main criteria responsible for the results in healthcare and increase in life expectancy; the availability of health services is an important component for secondary level of care and allows the population to be committed to positive behaviors in a context of poverty and inequalities, with disadvantages for indigenous people.

Healthcare, Poverty, Inequalities, Latin America, Indigenous

Gomes, C. (2019) Health Systems in Latin America: Principal Components of Attention. Health, 11, 1299-1319. doi: 10.4236/health.2019.1110100.