Inequity(s) in Health Care in Greater Buenos Aires. A View from Local Management

Abstract

Health policies inArgentinahave suffered important transformations as a result of the processes of decentralization and, focalization which, in turn, controlled social policies over the past few decades. Unlike other universal social services, health distinguishes itself as a matter that, although not delegated by the provincial states to the central level, went through a particular treatment due to the nacional state’s creation of a hospitals network, which was later decentralized and taken to the provinces. In this context, the analysis pays attention to the conditions of organization of health policy at the local level and within Greater Buenos Aires, and to different local strategies to manage the 2001-2003 crisis. The different conditions in which the life of this region’s population goes by, expose disparities in terms of health care rights, which in turn seem to deepen by the impact of health policies.