El sector salud argentino en los dos modelos de crecimiento en las etapas de la convertibilidad y la posconvertibilidad: factores económicos y políticos que explican su evolución.

Abstract

This paper deals with the changes that took place in the Argentine society between 1991 and 2011, beginning with the enactment of the economic growth model and political project founded on the Convertibility scheme, its crisis, and the subsequent consolidation of President Kirchner’s project. The analysis focuses on the health sector, whose structure in three sectors (state-based, social security, private sector) reflects the historical hybrid formation of the welfare regime in Argentina. The state’s role in the delivery of health services for disadvantaged families and individuals remains essential, even though the governance and financing of the public sector is highly decentralized. At the other end of the distribution, the upper classes resort to paid highly individualized services in the private sector, whilst the affiliation of the working middle class to the contributory system of ‘obras sociales’ depends directly on their position in the formal labor market. Based on this, the analysis centers on how neoliberalinspired reforms changed the structure of the Argentine
welfare state, how these changes originated in the labor market, and what effects resulted on the health sector. By comparison, I will assess to what extent the improvement in health coverage for the population over the last decade stems from the positive cycle in the labor market, or conversely, from the consequences of changes in public policies implemented by the governments of Nestor Kirchner and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.