Perspectives on Business and Economics, Vol. 39, 2021 37 Introduction With the Argentine economic crisis in 2001, inequity worsened, poverty increased, and more people became medically uninsured. Consequently, health outcomes deteriorated, especially in the poorest and most remote regions of the country. One particularly alarming outcome was that infant mortality rates increased. In response to the increase, in 2004 the Argentine government implemented Plan Nacer (Birth Plan), a novel maternalchild health program focused on results-based financing (World Bank, 2020). Plan Nacer was designed in partnership with the World Bank to increase coverage of basic health services, such as prenatal care and health checkups for vulnerable and uninsured populations, and to strengthen the management and efficiency of the health system through data collection and record keeping (Cortez & Romero, 2013). In the early 2000s, Argentina’s health system faced several challenges regarding unequal access to care, geographic disparities, and inconsistent leadership as authority was spread across the provinces (Cortez & Romero, 2013). Consequently, Argentina’s health care system became one of the most fragmented in South America. The drastic increase in unemployment left roughly 12% of the population without social health insurance, increasing the burden on the public health sector (Rubinstein et al., 2018). The process to obtain public health insurance became very competitive due to the sudden high demand. Patients had to undergo a lengthy application process to receive free health care, and many were rejected by hospitals due to those institutions’ lack of resources and overcrowding. In several provinces, hospitals and public services suffered from underfunding and low levels of efficiency (Measham, 2009). Fortunately, in 2004, President Néstor Kirchner, along with Argentina’s Ministry of Health, introduced the Plan Federal de Salud (Federal Health Plan) to eliminate disparities INFANT HEALTH CARE IN ARGENTINA Lina Arbain Oumera With the Argentine economic crisis in 2001, more people became medically uninsured and health outcomes deteriorated. One particularly alarming outcome was that infant mortality rates increased. In response, the Argentine government implemented Plan Nacer (Birth Plan), a novel maternal-child public health program. This article describes the evolution of the Argentine health care system, with a specific focus on how Plan Nacer led to a successful upgrade in infant health and mortality.
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