Financing indicators for health care decentralization in Latin America: information and suggestions for health planning

This article presents the results from an evaluative longitudinal study wit h before-after design. The main objective was to determine the effects of h ealth care decentralization on changes in health financing. Taking into acc ount feasibility, political and technical criteria, three Latin American co untries were selected as study populations: Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. The methodology had two main phases. In the first phase, the study referred to secondary sources of data and documents to obtain information about the fo llowing variables: type of decentralization implemented, source of finance, funds of financing, providers, final use of resources and mechanisms for r esource allocation. In the second phase, the study referred to primary data collected in a survey of key personnel from the health sectors of each cou ntry. Taking into account the changes implemented in the three countries, a s well as the strengths and weaknesses of each country in financing and dec entralization, a rule for decision-making is proposed that attempts to iden tify the main financial changes implemented in each country and the basic i ndicators that can be used in future years to direct the planning, assessme nt, adjustment and correction of health financing and decentralization. Cop yright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.