El gasto en cuidados médicos de las familias uruguayas.

Abstract

During the last decade changes have taken place in the structure of the expenditure of the Uruguayan households. In particular, the expenditure in health care raised and diversified. Using data from income and expenditure survey (Encuesta de Gastos e Ingresos 1994-95, Instituto Nacional de Estadística), we estimated Engel curves for different goods and services related to health care. We found that health care is necessary (income elasticity positive and smaller than one) except for medicament and dental care (it is not possible to reject the hypothesis that they are luxury goods). When considering all the expenditure in health care, it is proven that it is a necessary good but the income elasticity is near to one. Nevertheless, is a necessary good for the richest, but is not possible to reject that it is a luxury good for the poorest.