Argentina : Can Short Term Incentives Change Long Term Behavior?
After an economic crisis in Argentina in 2001 plunged millions of people there into poverty and worsened health outcomes, especially for women and children, the government crafted a new, national plan for a provincial health insurance program for t...
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2015
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/10/25130485/argentina-can-short-term-incentives-change-long-term-behavior http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23343 |
| Summary: | After an economic crisis in Argentina in
2001 plunged millions of people there into poverty and
worsened health outcomes, especially for women and children,
the government crafted a new, national plan for a provincial
health insurance program for the poor. The program, called
Plan Nacer, was specifically designed for pregnant women
without health coverage and children up to the age of six
(the program has since been expanded to include other
groups). Under the program, which was launched in 2005, the
national government transfers money to the provinces to use
for health services, basing part of the payment on how well
the province has done at meeting certain health indicators.
An evaluation of the program found that setting up the
financial incentives this way led to an improvement in
health care, as measured by a drop in low birth weight
babies and a decline in newborn deaths. As the results of
this impact evaluation show, temporary incentives are an
effective way to motivate health care workers to change
their routines so that ultimately, they’re providing better
care for the people they’re tasked to serve. The results
will be particularly useful to policy makers looking to make
long-term changes more cheaply than traditional
pay-for-performance programs. Nevertheless, the results also
highlight the challenge of improving birth outcomes for
high-risk populations. As researchers continue to search for
innovative ways to help the world’s poor, the lessons from
this intervention underscore the importance of providing
solutions that specifically target those who need it most. |
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