Costa Rica Health Care System Essay

In terms of healthcare, you could call Costa Rica the little country that could. Over the past seventy years the government has enacted reforms that have changed the face of both the system and health of a country. The Costa Rican health system is dedicated to providing equitable access to citizens, while protecting them from financial risk. The improvement this middle-income country has made rivals that of higher-income countries. However, while this system is fundamentally efficient and effective, it is not without problems.
Population Health
Throughout the last seventy years Costa Rica’s healthcare system has been going through a transformation. As the nation has taken steps to improve the health care system, the health of the country’s
Throughout the past few decades the country has transformed its health care system, which aims to offer equitable access, coverage, and services. These efforts have been successful and Cost Rica’s life expectancy is ranked second in the Americas (Unger, et. al., 2008). The nation’s health care system was even ranked 36th out of 191 countries in 2011 for the best health system performance by the World Health Organization (WHO) (Bertodano, 2003). The Costa Rican health system of today began its transition in the 1940s. It was during that time that the nation developed the social security fund known as Costa Rican Security Services (CCSS) to provide social and financial protection to the nation’s workers (Vargas & Musier, 2013). In 1947 the nation dismantled its military, freeing up additional funding to spend on education and health care services (Bertadano, 2003). According to Vargas and Musier this transition did not come without some opposition. The medical providers at the time were opposed to a system overhaul by the State and formed a labor union to strengthen their voice (2013). Recognizing the need for support, or at least participation, from the medical providers the government negotiated a compromise. The doctors in Costa Rica would be employed by CCSS, but would be allowed to maintain their private practices (Vargas & Muiser,
These services are offered in three national general hospitals, and five national specialty hospitals (Costa Rica, 2013).
The CCSS is financed through a combination of contributions from employers, workers, and the State. This financing is most reliant on the contributions from employer/employee contributions, which is responsible for 90% of the finances (Saenz, Bermudez, Acosta, 2010). The percentage the employee pays in is based on their income level (Saenz, Bermudez, Acosta, 2010). Formal workers are autonomously enrolled and employees typically pay around 5% of their income, with employers paying 9.25% and the state paying less than 10% (Clark, 2002).
The Costa Rican health care system consists of several different types of beneficiaries (Saenz, Bermudez, Acosta, 2010). One type of beneficiary is known as a direct beneficiary. Direct beneficiaries are those formal workers who are required to participate in the CCSS (Saenz, Bermudez, Acosta,