Background:

The effects that the expansion of the Seguro Popular (SP), Mexico’s universal -according to the government- health insurance program, has had on the human and material resources needed to meet the new demand remain largely unexplored. It is a key piece in the quest for universal healthcare that we analyze in this paper.

Methodology:

Unlike previous evaluations, we use sanitary jurisdictions as units of analysis and operationalize SP’s intervention as a continuous treatment indicator (relative to the number of recipients).

Results:

Estimates using a variety of propensity score approaches suggest that, on the average, SP effectively has had a positive impact on Mexico’s health resources. However, quantile and interaction treatment effects also suggest unexpected distributional effects on health resources.

Conclusions:

Overall, our results suggest that the program may be leaving behind some of the most vulnerable geographical areas.