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Objective: To determine the impact of Seguro Popular (SPS) on catastrophic and impoverishing household expenditures and on the financial protection of the Mexican health system., Material and Methods: The propensity score matching (PSM) method was applied to the population affiliated to SPS to determine the program's attributable effect on health expenditure. This analysis uses the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH) during 2004-2012, conducted by Mexico's National Institute of Statistics andGeography (INEGI)., Results: It was found that SPS has a significant effect on reducing the likelihood that households will incur impoverishing expenditures. A negative effect on catastrophic expenditures was also found, but it was not statistically significant., Conclusions: This paper shows the effect that SPS, in particular health insurance, has as an instrument of financial protection. Future studies using longer periods of ENIGH data should analyze the persistence of high out-of-pocket expenditure., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Unlabelled: Objetive: Document financial protection in health in Mexico up to 2014., Materials and Methods: We up date the measures of impoverishing and catastrophic health expenditure to 2014, to analyse shifts since the implementation of the System for Social Protection in Health and the Seguro Popular using time series data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey., Results: Between 2004 and 2014 there has been a continued improvement in levels of financial protection. Excessive expenditure reached its lowest point: -2.0% in 2012 and 2.1% in 2014. Impoverishing expenditure dropped to 1.3% in 2004, compared to 0.5% in 2014, and catastrophic expenditures from 2.7% to 2.1%., Conclusions: The time series of data on financial protection show a clear pattern of improvement between 2000 and 2014 and level off and low levels in 2012 and 2014. Still, levels continue to be relatively high for households in the poorest quintile, in rural areas and with an elderly person.

Background: Knee surgery is a risk factor for thromboembolic disease. Prophylaxis reduces the risk of this condition., Methods: Economic and health consequences of drugs preventing and treating thromboembolic disease in patients undergoing knee surgery from the institutional perspective (time horizon: 1 year) were estimated. The measures of effectiveness were: reduction in the number of cases (per 1,000 patients) of deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, hospital admissions and deaths. Transition probabilities were estimated by meta-analysis. The alternatives were: warfarin (reference), dalteparin, enoxaparin, nadroparin, unfractionated heparin + warfarin, and non-prophylaxis. Data on resources use and costs corresponds to the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS). Acceptability curves were constructed., Results: No prophylaxis implied three times higher cost ($18,835.10 versus $5,967.10) and less effectiveness in comparison with warfarin. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios for enoxaparin were $3, $13, $17 and $3 per each additional case of deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, death and hospital admission avoided. Results of nadroparin and unfractionated heparin were inferior to warfarin (59.1% and 72.9% more costly and less effective in three measures of effectiveness, respectively). Dalteparin showed higher health outcomes and lower cost compared with warfarin (-20.6%). Dalteparin had a higher probability of being cost-effective than enoxaparin., Discussion: thromboprophylaxis is a clinically and economically favorable alternative. The identification of a pharmacoeconomic profile of alternatives to perform it becomes relevant given the increasing pressure on institutional budgets., Conclusions: Dalteparin would be a cost-saving alternative in thromboprophylaxis of patients undergoing knee surgery at IMSS.

Objective: To measure effective coverage for ll health interventions in Latin America including the children's, women's and adult health, as part of program evaluation., Material and Methods: Interventions were selected; the definitions and calculation methods were harmonized according to the information available to ensure comparability between countries., Results: Chile has better indicators of crude and effective coverage followed by Mexico and Colombia.There are significant gaps between regions, counties or states., Conclusions: The health metric on effective coverage is a sensitive indicator that links three important aspects: Coverage of health interventions, use of health services, and access to such services. Effective coverage is a good tool to evaluate health programs performance, and also provides data of where and to whom the system should address national efforts and resources to achieve the purposes and goals set.

Breast cancer is a serious threat to the health of women globally and an unrecognized priority in middle-income countries. This paper presents data from Mexico. It shows that breast cancer accounts for more deaths than cervical cancer since 2006. It is the second cause of death among women aged 30 to 54 and affects all socioeconomic groups. Data on detection, although underreported, show 6000 new cases in 1990 and a projected increase to over 16500 per year by 2020. Further, the majority of cases are self-detected and only 10% of all cases are detected in stage I. Mexico s social security systems cover approximately 40 to 45% of the population and include breast cancer treatments. Since 2007 the rest of the population has had the right to breast cancer treatment through Seguro Popular. Despite these entitlements, services are lacking and interventions for early detection, particularly mammography, are very limited. As of 2006 only 22% of women aged 40 to 69 reported having a mammography in the past year. Barriers exist on both the demand and supply sides. Lobbying, education, awareness building and an articulated policy response will be important to ensure extended coverage, access to and acceptance of both treatment and early detection.

Objective: We studied the cost of health care for women with breast cancer treated at the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS, per its abbreviation in Spanish)., Material and Methods: Using the Medical and Operative Information Systems of the IMSS, we constructed a cohort of patients diagnosed in 2002 and followed these patients to the end of 2006, identifying the use of resources and imputing the IMSS-specific cost structure., Results: Only 14% of women were diagnosed in stage 1 and 48% were diagnosed in stages III-IV. The average cost of their medical care per patient-year was $MX110,459. Costs for stage 1 were $MX74,522 compared to $102,042 for stage II, and were $MX154,018 for stage III and $MX199,274 for stage IV., Conclusions: Breast cancer accounts for a significant part of the IMSS health budget. Later stage at diagnosis is associated with higher economic costs per patient-year of treatment and lower probability of five-year survival.

Absence of financial protection in health is a recently diagnosed "disease" of health systems. The most obvious symptom is that families face economic ruin and poverty as a consequence of financing their health care. Mexico was one of the first countries to diagnose the problem, attribute it to lack of financial protection, and propose systemic therapy through health reform. In this article we assess how Mexico turned evidence on catastrophic and impoverishing health spending into a catalyst for institutional renovation through the reform that created Seguro Popular de Salud (Popular Health Insurance). We present 15-year trends on the evolution of catastrophic and impoverishing health spending, including evidence on how the situation is improving. The results of the Mexican experience suggest an important role for the organisation and financing of the health system in reducing impoverishment and protecting households during periods of individual and collective financial crisis.

Background: Medical care in a hospital under a socialized medicine system should be highly effective at the lowest expense possible. When myocardial perfusion studies are performed in well-selected patients, the costs decrease because of the need for fewer invasive studies. When patients are not selected properly, there is an increase-wasted resource, making it necessary to perform cost-effective studies. The goal of this study is to evaluate the economical impact of the diagnostic process in patients suspected of having coronary artery disease, referred to our service (Nuclear Medicine, Hospital de Cardiología CMN, IMSS) in 2002., Methods: We analyzed 1966 reports of myocardial gammagrams. Patient reports were stratified according to their referring unit. The sum of the unitary fixed cost was converted to the unitary cost for each reason for referral. Kappa was used to evaluate concordance., Results: Patients were 62 +/- 11.39 years old, 52% male. Concordance between the referring diagnosis and the myocardial gammagram was <1% (p <0.001). The cost of cardiac gammagrams varied between $2,613.11 and $3,306.77 (Mexican pesos). Waste was calculated at 30%, which represented $1.8 million (Mexican pesos)., Conclusions: Cost-effective studies are important tools in the administration of resources. In this particular case the results indicate the necessity for systematic registration of financial information, periodic review of operation costs by service, and criteria for use of high-cost services.

Objective: To document trends in financial protection in the health care system in Mexico between 1992 and 2004, applying a series of indicators that measure catastrophic and impoverishing health spending and the Index of Fairness in Financial Contributions. MATERIALS Y METHODS: This study uses the biannual time series of the Survey of Household Income and Expenditures (ENIGH) spanning the period 1992 to 2004. The methodologies seek to measure the level and distribution of the burden of health care finance on households, and the financial protection offered to them by the health care system. Four indicators are presented: 1) the Index of Fairness in Financial Contributions, 2) the proportion of households with catastrophic health expenditure, 3) the proportion of households with impoverishment due to health spending and 4) the sum of the proportion of households with catastrophic or impoverishing health spending, which is referred to as excessive health spending. The analysis presented in this document is descriptive, leaving for later studies a deeper analysis of causal aspects., Results: The number of families that suffer impoverishment due to health spending increased from 5.2% in 1992, reached a high of 9.9% in 1996, and then gradually declined to 1.8% by 2004. The proportion of households with catastrophic expenses began at 2.8% in 1992, increased to 4.2% in 1998 and then fell to a level of 2.6% in 2004. The improvements from 2000 on are concentrated among the uninsured population, families affiliated to Popular Health Insurance, and households in the poorest two quintiles of the income distribution., Conclusions: The patterns over time in excessive health spending reflect a worsening during periods of economic crisis, post-crisis recovery, and a sustained improvement beginning in the year 2000. The data suggest that part of the reduction in the number of households with excessive health spending is due to the extension of financial protection for Mexican families through the Popular Health Insurance, while another part is associated with a decline in poverty. In addition,this paper documents an important relationship between economic trends and catastrophic and impoverishing health spending, suggesting the importance of financially protecting families through health insurance. Financial protection assists in guaranteeing that when economic crisis--of a country or of a family--coincides with illness, health care payments do not become the cause of a long or permanent period of impoverishment for households.

Objective: To assess the impact on fair health financing and household catastrophic health expenditures of the implementation of the Popular Health Insurance (Seguro Popular de Salud)., Material and Methods: Data analyzed in this study come from the National Income and Expenditure Household Survey (Encuesta Nacional de Ingresos y Gastos de los Hogares, ENIGH), 2000, and the National Health Insurance and Expenditure Survey, (Encuesta Nacional de Aseguramiento y Gasto en Salud, ENAGS), 2001. Estimations are based on projections of extension of the Popular Health Insurance under different conditions of coverage and out-of-pocket expenditure reductions in the uninsured population. The mathematic simulation model assumes applying the new Popular Health Insurance financial structure to the 2000 expenditure values reported by ENIGH, given the probability of affiliation by households., Results: The model of determinants of affiliation to the Popular Health Insurance yielded three significant variables: being in income quintiles I and II, being a female head of household, and that a household member had a medical visit in the past year. Simulation results show that important impacts on the performance of the Mexican Health System will occur in terms of fair financing and catastrophic expenditures, even before achieving the universal coverage goal in 2010. A reduction of 40% in out-of-pocket expenditures and a Popular Health Insurance coverage of 100% will decrease catastrophic health expenditures from 3.4% to 1.6%., Conclusions: Our results show that the reduction of out-of-pocket expenditures generated by the new financing and health provision Popular Health Insurance model, will improve the financial fairness index and the financial contribution to the health system, and will decrease the percentage of households with catastrophic expenditures, even before reaching universal coverage. A greater impact may be expected due to coverage extension initiating in the poorest communities that have a very restricted and progressive financial contribution.