Impact evaluation on health : three case studies for Colombia

Abstract

The present work uses impact evaluation tools in health economics to analyze three different issues in Colombia. The first issue is how losing health insurance for young adults affects medical service usage and health outcomes. Results show that losing health insurance when turning 18 years old increases visits to the ED, reduces preventive care visits with a physician, and increases the usage of private medical services (out-of-pocket) for young adults. For the second issue, we measure how exposure to high levels of air pollution affects children´s health, looking at children under five years old attending public kindergartens in Bogotá; results show evidence that mothers who are exposed to higher levels of CO and O3 during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy (in-utero), have a higher probability of their babies being born with a low birth weight. Furthermore, the mother being exposed to high levels of O3 during the second trimester increases the probability of the child being diagnosed with a lung-related disease. These results imply that air pollution affects young children’s health, which may have an impact on future outcomes and human capital formation. The third issue analyzes how an economic activity boom has unintended consequences on sexually transmitted infections. Results show how gold mining activities increased the incidence of STIs such as syphilis and gonorrhea in three and six cases per 100,000 inhabitants respectively in municipalities with gold mining.