Sistema de salud de Chile / The health system of Chile

En este trabajo se describe el sistema de salud de Chile, incluyendo su estructura, financiamiento, beneficiarios y recursos físicos, materiales y humanos de los que dispone. Este sistema está compuesto por dos sectores, público y privado. El sector público está formado por todos los organismos que constituyen el Sistema Nacional de Servicios de Salud y cubre aproximadamente a 70 por ciento de la población, incluyendo a los pobres del campo y las ciudades, la clase media baja y los jubilados, así como los profesionales y técnicos. El sector privado cubre aproximadamente a 17.5 por ciento de la población perteneciente a los grupos sociales de mayores ingresos. Un pequeño sector de la población, perteneciente a la clase alta, realiza pagos directos de bolsillo a proveedores privados de servicios de atención a la salud. Alrededor de 10 por ciento de la población está cubierta por otras agencias públicas, fundamentalmente los Servicios de Salud de las Fuerzas Armadas. Recientemente el sistema se reformó creando el Régimen General de Garantías en Salud, que establece un Sistema Universal con Garantías Explícitas que se tradujo, en 2005, en el Plan de Acceso Universal con Garantías Explícitas (AUGE), que garantiza el acceso oportuno a servicios de calidad para 56 problemas de salud, incluyendo cáncer en niños, cáncer de mama, trastornos isquémicos del corazón, VIH/SIDA y diabetes.

This paper describes the Chilean health system, including its structure, financing, beneficiaries, and its physical, material and human resources. This system has two sectors, public and private. The public sector comprises all the organisms that constitute the National System of Health Services, which covers 70 percent of the population, including the rural and urban poor, the low middle-class, the retired, and the self-employed professionals and technicians.The private sector covers 17.5 percent of the population, mostly the upper middle-class and the high-income population. A small proportion of the population uses private health services and pays for them out-of-pocket. Around l0 percent of the population is covered by other public agencies, basically the Health Services for the Armed Forces. The system was recently reformed with the establishment of a Universal System of Explicit Entitlements, which operates through a Universal Plan of Explicit Entitlements (AUGE), which guarantees timely access to treatment for 56 health problems, including cancer in children, breast cancer, ischaemic heart disease, HIV/AIDS and diabetes.

The Chilean health system: 20 years of reforms

The Chilean health care system has been intensively reformed in the past 20 years. Reforms under the Pinochet government (1973-1990) aimed mainly at the decentralization of the system and the development of a private sector. Decentralization involved both a deconcentration process and the devolution of primary health care to municipalities. The democratic governments after 1990 chose to preserve the core organization but introduced reforms intended to correct the system's failures and to increase both efficiency and equity. The present article briefly explains the current organization of the Chilean health care system. It also reviews the different reforms introduced in the past 20 years, from the Pinochet regime to the democratic governments. Finally, a brief discussion describes the strengths and weaknesses of the system, as well as the challenges it currently faces.