1. For many years, Mexico has provided public health insurance to its formal sec
ID: 371561 • Letter: 1
Question
1. For many years, Mexico has provided public health insurance to its formal sector workers, but in 2002 it started expanding coverage to the rest of the population. Suppose you want to evaluate the effects of the program (“SeguroPopular”)onadultmortalityusingadifference-in-differenceapproach. Your treatment group will be informal sector workers and your control group (who were unaffected by the expansion) are the formal sector workers. Your before period is 2001 and your after period is 2004. For each of the below items, explain why it is is or is not a problem for your estimate of the program effect.
(a) A u epidemic sweeps through the country in 2004.
(b) In response to the program, some formal sector workers switch to the informalsectorbecausetheynolongerneedtoworkintheformalsector to get free healthcare.
(c) Some states are faster than others at signing up informal sector workers.
(d) There is a major recession in 2004, and formal sector workers are better protected from economic shocks.
(e) Between 2001 and 2004 the Mexican government improves water quality in rural areas which have higher proportions of informal workers than urban areas.
(f) Formal sector workers are on average older than informal sector workers.
Explanation / Answer
For each of the below items, explain why it is or is not a problem for your estimate of the program effect.
My understanding of the above question is that we need to explain if each of these reasons is something that we should consider as a ramification/by-product/after-effect/performance indicator of the new health coverage for all. In other words whether the option is an indicator of the effect of health coverage expanded to all.
(a) A u epidemic sweeps through the country in 2004 – Yes it can be used as an indicator as the flue is epidemic and would hit all the classes of workers and thus the mortality of formal and informal sector would help in assessing if the mortality rates change for informal sector.
(b) In response to the program, some formal sector workers switch to the informal sector because they no longer need to work in the formal sector to get free healthcare. – No it is not an indicator to point towards the effectiveness of the extended medicare to the informal class
(c) Some states are faster than others at signing up informal sector workers – No this is also not a true indicator of the effect of healthcare expansion. It could be because of more number of informal jobs in some states or low education levels of population of few states or any other tangential reason.
(d) There is a major recession in 2004, and formal sector workers are better protected from economic shocks – Yes in case of a recession, there will be job losses and in case the mortality is lower than that in 2001 for the informal class, it is an indicator of the cushion provided by public health insurance.
(e) Between 2001 and 2004 the Mexican government improves water quality in rural areas which have higher proportions of informal workers than urban areas. – No this is not an indicator as it might be that govt improves these facilities to lower their risk in the form of a bet which is providing public healthcare to all. Thus govt. would like to improve these proactive facilities so that it incurs lesser expenses in public healthcare
(f) Formal sector workers are on average older than informal sector workers – Yes it is a true indicator of the effect of healthcare and thus if the age of workers in informal sector also show increase (even if it is minor), it can be attributed to the new public healthcare available to them.
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