Evaluación del efecto del PAMI en la cobertura en salud de los adultos mayores en Argentina

We conducted regression discontinuity design models in order to evaluate changes in access to healthcare services and financial protection, using as a natural experiment the age required to retire in Argentina, the moment in which people are able to enroll in the free social health insurance called PAMI. The dependent variables were indicators of the population with health insurance, out-of-pocket health expenditure, and use of health services. The results show that PAMI causes a high increase in the population with health insurance and marginal reductions in health expenditure. No effects on healthcare use were found.