TY - JOUR AU - Miller,Grant AU - Pinto,Diana M. AU - Vera-Hernández,Marcos TI - Risk Protection, Service Use, and Health Outcomes Under Colombia’s Health Insurance Program for the Poor JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 15456 PY - 2009 Y2 - October 2009 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15456 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15456.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Grant Miller CHP/PCOR Stanford University 117 Encina Commons Stanford, CA 94305-6019 Tel: 650/723-2714 Fax: 650/723-1919 E-Mail: ngmiller@stanford.edu Diana M. Pinto Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Faculty of Medicine Pontificia Universidad Javeriana 7th Avenue, #40-62, Second Floor Bogotá, Colombia Tel: 3208320 ext2804 E-Mail: dmpinto@gmail.com Marcos Vera-Hernández University College London Department of Economics Gower St. London WC1E 6BT United Kingdom E-Mail: m.vera@ucl.ac.uk AB - Unexpected medical care spending imposes considerable financial risk on developing country households. Based on managed care models of health insurance in wealthy countries, Colombia’s Régimen Subsidiado is a publicly financed insurance program targeted to the poor, aiming both to provide risk protection and to promote allocative efficiency in the use of medical care. Using a “fuzzy” regression discontinuity design, we find that the program has shielded the poor from some financial risk while increasing the use of traditionally under-utilized preventive services – with measurable health gains. ER -