Hop The Fence For Healthcare

— James Reyes, Wikipedia

The largest randomized health policy study ever conducted finds a health care program that's been astonishing effective in reducing crippling health care costs among poorer households.

Did I mention this health care program is in México? At the rate things are going we're going to be climbing over the border fence and headed south for what we can't get here.

A paper in the current Lancet scientifically establishes that Seguro Popular, established in 2003, achieved its main goal to reduce health care costs.

"The success of Seguro Popular in reducing catastrophic health expenditures is remarkable, not least because governmental money spent on the poor in many countries rarely reaches the intended recipients," said Gary King of Harvard University, lead author on the study.

The study included 500,000 people and monitored health outcomes and expenditures in 118,569 households in 174 communities over 10 months. Half the communities received treatment. That means families in those villages were encouraged to enroll in Seguro Popular. They had their health facilities built or upgraded, with medical personnel, drugs and other supplies provided. The other half didn't get squat.

The outcome of the study is interesting enough. But its innovative research designs and statistical methods vastly increased what can be learned from an evaluation while saving a short ton of money making the evaluation.

The design includes failsafe components that preserve the experimental randomization even if politics or other problems intervene, including those that have ruined most previous large scale public policy evaluations.

Aren't we doing that right now in the US? Don't we need to screen politics out of the equation? Any researchers from this study willing to look at our own sick health care system?
 

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