Costa Rica Region
Medium HALE and Life Expectancy
Low Gap between HALE and Life Expectancy
Final Longevity Progressiveness Ranking: #31
Final Longevity Progressiveness Score: 0.632
Practical Recommendation Summary: Diseases that most affect quality of life are heart disease, back pain, depressive disorders, hearing loss and diabetes. Inequalities also persist among the various population groups. Costa Rica needs to expand its efforts to promote healthy living, particularly young people. The health system needs to contribute to higher levels of equity and solidarity.
Practical Recommendations (Full):
● Concentrate on the planning, assessment and control of the functioning of the universal healthcare coverage. A key issue concerns long waiting times, which have been a persistent and challenging problem. A preoccupation with waiting times also means that other dimensions of quality, particularly patient outcomes, have not received sufficient attention in recent years. Some key quality indicators, such as those relating to patient experience and patient safety, are not regularly collected.
● Strengthen primary and preventive care. A core function of a strengthened primary care sector must be the effective management of patients with multiple, complex health care needs, including long-term conditions such as diabetes. The government should devise a comprehensive approach to tackling diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases through public health programmes and public policy.
● Promotion a healthy lifestyle to decrease the burden of behavioural risk factors. Increasing obesity in Costa Rica in constellation with smoking and alcohol consumption are major factors that contribute to the slow-motion disaster of non-communicable diseases.
● Improve engagement of high-qualified staff in healthcare. The government should provide financial incentives for medical staff in the public sector and funding to state healthcare services.
● Enhance eHealth infrastructure. To achieve higher efficiency of the healthcare system and better health outcomes in the context of ageing and life expectancy improvements the government should modernise health centres by providing the latest technological equipment. The government also should give particular attention to the development of eHealth systems, include the creation of electronic patient records in primary health care, e-prescription services and patient registries.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
● The life expectancy exceeds the average in the OECD and longevity is above the US because of healthy dietary and favourable climate conditions.
● 11.1% of the population over the age of 20 used tobacco products in 2018. That figure is down from 14.2% in 2010, representing a decrease of more than 33,000 tobacco users.
● Over 95% population is covered by the public insurance that is Caja.
● Healthcare system in Costa Rica is available and universal for people of all ages.
Weaknesses:
● Diseases of the circulatory system were the leading cause of death, followed by neoplasms; together, these two groups accounted for more than half of all deaths.
● Patients don’t have an opportunity to choose provider and service.
● The benefits package mostly covered for primary care but not defined for the secondary one.
● There is a lack of specialists for providing primary care and most of them don’t have post-graduate training.
● The death rate for Costa Rica in 2018 was 5.046 deaths per 1000 people, a 1.45% increase from 2017.
Opportunities:
● Primary care continues to develop with a few established entities such as Centers for Integrated Healthcare.
● Costa Rica has developed a multi-sectoral approach to tackle the challenges of the ageing population that can become an instrument for longevity enhance.
● Implementation of the innovative approach to delivering medical services can make Costa Rica’s health care even more sustainable.
● The worldwide decrease in smoking rates.
Threats:
● There is a rapid population ageing. In 2010 the population 65+ was 5% according to the whole population an by 2050 this number expects to increase to 21%.
● The main risks for longevity are NCDs, cardiovascular diseases are the main burden accounting of 30% of deaths and 23% of reasons for deaths are occupied by cancer.
● In 2014 was figured out that 60% Costa Ricans between 20 and 44 were overweight or obese, and there is a tendency in growing risks of obesity.
● Environmental risks, such as earthquakes, tsunamis and epidemics because of tropic fauna.
SWOT Conclusions
Strengths Analysis:
● Out-of-pocket spending was 24.4% in 2014 that is lower than the average in the region.
● Approval of national strategy that can help to struggle the noncommunicable diseases through the smoking by reduction to 12% in its rates, decrease in obesity with a 15% reduction in salt intake and a 2% reduction in child obesity by 2021.
● Great improvements are achieved in the waiting periods by governmental intervention. After the appropriate initiative in 2014 93% of hospitals were able to reduce waiting periods.
● Services in Costa Rica have relatively low prices for the same quality and availability.
● Healthcare system in Costa Rica is affordable for people of all ages. Healthcare is free for the poorest Costa Ricans.
Weaknesses Analysis:
● Increasing crude death rate: the death rate for Costa Rica in 2018 was 5.046 deaths per 1000 people, a 1.45% increase from 2017.
● The attempt to reform of the healthcare provision through the hospitals was abandoned among the other crucial reforms that are also not effective enough.
● Long waiting periods before receiving the healthcare in different entities is lower than the accessibility of the whole system and patients’ outcomes. Almost a third (31%) of patients were waiting more than 540 days for elective surgery. Long waiting periods in primary care cause the poor access to this kind of service that leads to overload in the hospital emergency rooms. Patients have to get up very early to handle the huge query in the clinic.
● Probability of increase in the financial burden of out-of-pocket spending, the catastrophic expenditure in health and impoverishment expenditure.
● Specialists and physician density remains to be 2.1 per 1000 population that is below OECD average.
Low Gap between HALE and Life Expectancy
Final Longevity Progressiveness Ranking: #31
Final Longevity Progressiveness Score: 0.632
Practical Recommendation Summary: Diseases that most affect quality of life are heart disease, back pain, depressive disorders, hearing loss and diabetes. Inequalities also persist among the various population groups. Costa Rica needs to expand its efforts to promote healthy living, particularly young people. The health system needs to contribute to higher levels of equity and solidarity.
Practical Recommendations (Full):
● Concentrate on the planning, assessment and control of the functioning of the universal healthcare coverage. A key issue concerns long waiting times, which have been a persistent and challenging problem. A preoccupation with waiting times also means that other dimensions of quality, particularly patient outcomes, have not received sufficient attention in recent years. Some key quality indicators, such as those relating to patient experience and patient safety, are not regularly collected.
● Strengthen primary and preventive care. A core function of a strengthened primary care sector must be the effective management of patients with multiple, complex health care needs, including long-term conditions such as diabetes. The government should devise a comprehensive approach to tackling diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases through public health programmes and public policy.
● Promotion a healthy lifestyle to decrease the burden of behavioural risk factors. Increasing obesity in Costa Rica in constellation with smoking and alcohol consumption are major factors that contribute to the slow-motion disaster of non-communicable diseases.
● Improve engagement of high-qualified staff in healthcare. The government should provide financial incentives for medical staff in the public sector and funding to state healthcare services.
● Enhance eHealth infrastructure. To achieve higher efficiency of the healthcare system and better health outcomes in the context of ageing and life expectancy improvements the government should modernise health centres by providing the latest technological equipment. The government also should give particular attention to the development of eHealth systems, include the creation of electronic patient records in primary health care, e-prescription services and patient registries.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
● The life expectancy exceeds the average in the OECD and longevity is above the US because of healthy dietary and favourable climate conditions.
● 11.1% of the population over the age of 20 used tobacco products in 2018. That figure is down from 14.2% in 2010, representing a decrease of more than 33,000 tobacco users.
● Over 95% population is covered by the public insurance that is Caja.
● Healthcare system in Costa Rica is available and universal for people of all ages.
Weaknesses:
● Diseases of the circulatory system were the leading cause of death, followed by neoplasms; together, these two groups accounted for more than half of all deaths.
● Patients don’t have an opportunity to choose provider and service.
● The benefits package mostly covered for primary care but not defined for the secondary one.
● There is a lack of specialists for providing primary care and most of them don’t have post-graduate training.
● The death rate for Costa Rica in 2018 was 5.046 deaths per 1000 people, a 1.45% increase from 2017.
Opportunities:
● Primary care continues to develop with a few established entities such as Centers for Integrated Healthcare.
● Costa Rica has developed a multi-sectoral approach to tackle the challenges of the ageing population that can become an instrument for longevity enhance.
● Implementation of the innovative approach to delivering medical services can make Costa Rica’s health care even more sustainable.
● The worldwide decrease in smoking rates.
Threats:
● There is a rapid population ageing. In 2010 the population 65+ was 5% according to the whole population an by 2050 this number expects to increase to 21%.
● The main risks for longevity are NCDs, cardiovascular diseases are the main burden accounting of 30% of deaths and 23% of reasons for deaths are occupied by cancer.
● In 2014 was figured out that 60% Costa Ricans between 20 and 44 were overweight or obese, and there is a tendency in growing risks of obesity.
● Environmental risks, such as earthquakes, tsunamis and epidemics because of tropic fauna.
SWOT Conclusions
Strengths Analysis:
● Out-of-pocket spending was 24.4% in 2014 that is lower than the average in the region.
● Approval of national strategy that can help to struggle the noncommunicable diseases through the smoking by reduction to 12% in its rates, decrease in obesity with a 15% reduction in salt intake and a 2% reduction in child obesity by 2021.
● Great improvements are achieved in the waiting periods by governmental intervention. After the appropriate initiative in 2014 93% of hospitals were able to reduce waiting periods.
● Services in Costa Rica have relatively low prices for the same quality and availability.
● Healthcare system in Costa Rica is affordable for people of all ages. Healthcare is free for the poorest Costa Ricans.
Weaknesses Analysis:
● Increasing crude death rate: the death rate for Costa Rica in 2018 was 5.046 deaths per 1000 people, a 1.45% increase from 2017.
● The attempt to reform of the healthcare provision through the hospitals was abandoned among the other crucial reforms that are also not effective enough.
● Long waiting periods before receiving the healthcare in different entities is lower than the accessibility of the whole system and patients’ outcomes. Almost a third (31%) of patients were waiting more than 540 days for elective surgery. Long waiting periods in primary care cause the poor access to this kind of service that leads to overload in the hospital emergency rooms. Patients have to get up very early to handle the huge query in the clinic.
● Probability of increase in the financial burden of out-of-pocket spending, the catastrophic expenditure in health and impoverishment expenditure.
● Specialists and physician density remains to be 2.1 per 1000 population that is below OECD average.