The rise of noncommunicable diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean: challenges for public health policies

Maria Anauati, Sebastian Galiani and Federico Weinschelbaum

Latin American Economic Review, 2015, vol. 24, issue 1, 1-56

Abstract: The health landscape in Latin America and the Caribbean is changing quickly. The region is undergoing a demographic and epidemiological transition in which health problems are highly concentrated on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). In light of this, the region faces two main challenges: (1) develop cost-effective policies to prevent NCD risk factors, and (2) increase access to quality healthcare in a scenario in which a large share of the labor force is employed in the informal sector. This paper describes both alternative interventions to expand health insurance coverage and their trade-off with labor informality and moral hazard problems. The paper also focuses on obesity as a case example of an NCD, and emphasizes how lack of knowledge along with self-control problems would lead people to make suboptimal decisions related to food consumption, which may later manifest in obesity problems. Copyright The Author(s) 2015

Keywords: Noncommunicable diseases; Obesity; Health insurance; I12; I13; I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1007/s40503-015-0025-7

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