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Estimation of health‐care costs for work‐related injuries in the Mexican Institute of social security
Author(s) -
CarlosRivera Fernando,
AguilarMadrid Guadalupe,
GómezMontenegro Pablo Anaya,
JuárezPérez Cuauhtémoc A.,
SánchezRomán Francisco Raúl,
Durcudoy Montandon Jaqueline E.A.,
BorjaAburto Víctor Hugo
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.20666
Subject(s) - medicine , health care , occupational safety and health , social security , environmental health , gross domestic product , population , indirect costs , economic cost , total cost , latin americans , business , economic growth , economics , market economy , linguistics , philosophy , neoclassical economics , accounting , pathology
Background Data on the economic consequences of occupational injuries is scarce in developing countries which prevents the recognition of their economic and social consequences. This study assess the direct heath care costs of work‐related accidents in the Mexican Institute of Social Security, the largest health care institution in Latin America, which covered 12,735,856 workers and their families in 2005. Methods We estimated the cost of treatment for 295,594 officially reported occupational injuries nation wide. A group of medical experts devised treatment algorithms to quantify resource utilization for occupational injuries to which unit costs were applied. Total costs were estimated as the product of the cost per illness and the severity weighted incidence of occupational accidents. Results Occupational injury rate was 2.9 per 100 workers. Average medical care cost per case was $2,059 USD. The total cost of the health care of officially recognized injured workers was $753,420,222 USD. If injury rate is corrected for underreporting, the cost for formal injured workers is 791,216,460. If the same costs are applied for informal workers, approximately half of the working population in Mexico, the cost of healthcare for occupational injuries is about 1% of the gross domestic product. Conclusions Health care costs of occupational accidents are similar to the economic direct expenditures to compensate death and disability in the social security system in Mexico. However, indirect costs might be as important as direct costs. Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:195–201, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.