Por razones de fuerza mayor, el seminario programado para el día de hoy ha sido suspendido. 

Lamentamos cualquier inconveniente. 

Resumen 

Given that financial protection in health is one of the objectives of the recent health system reforms in many developing countries, understanding clearly the mechanisms that lie behind the financial vulnerability associated with health shocks is key for the success of past and forthcoming reforms. Using Mexican longitudinal data, I study the effect of breadwinners’ health shocks on household consumption, measuring health shocks through changes in the capacity to perform Activities of Daily Living. I find that health shocks to households’ breadwinners are associated with significant long-lasting decreases in non-medical per capita consumption, but health shocks to other household members have no such effects. When consumption depends on labor income, the economic cost associated with a health shock may lie less with direct out of-pocket medical expenditures than with the diminished capacity to work. Therefore, providing health insurance to the previously uninsured sector of the population could potentially increase social welfare because of its consumption smoothing properties, although it would not necessarily provide full consumption insurance against health shocks. To illustrate this, I use a standardized expected utility model to compare the value of the risk of loss earnings due to health shocks, in my sample, relative to that of health expenditures. I then compute the risk premia households would be willing to pay to reduce, either partially or entirely, households’ risk exposure to any health shock.