Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

We study the effects of a recent health reform in Chile that ensures coverage of treatment for a subset of health conditions considered as a priority by the government of Chile in year 2005. Using time series data on all hospitalizations and deaths in the country from 2001 to 2012, we are able to study different outcomes for all types of cancers covered by the reform and types of cancers that were not included in the list of conditions. The pre-reform trends between cancers covered and not covered are remarkably similar which allow us to implement a difference in difference estimator to identify an Intention to Treat effect of the reform on different outcomes. In particular, our results show that the expansion of treatment coverage led to a reduction in the hospitalization rate and an increase in the probability of having a surgery when hospitalized. We find no effects on length of stay or mortality at discharge. Preliminary findings show that the reform increased age at death for cancers included in the reform. Future work will include an analysis of the heterogeneity by type of hospitals and health centers of reference.