title: What is driving people's dissatisfaction with their own health care in 17 Latin American countries?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A number of expert reports have pointed to serious problems with health care in many Latin American countries and argued the need to reform and improve health-care systems. In addition, the Ministers of Health of the Americas have stated that health systems should be accountable to citizens.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This paper examines, in each of 17 Latin American countries, public dissatisfaction with the health care to which people have access, the proportion of people reporting problems with access to and the cost of health care and the factors that are most important in driving public dissatisfaction.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data are drawn from a 2007 Latinobarómetro survey of 19 212 adults interviewed face-to-face in 17 Latin American countries.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proportion of people expressing dissatisfaction with their health care varies a great deal by country, as do the proportions reporting problems with access to and the cost of health care. Problems with access to care seem to matter most in trying to explain public dissatisfaction with their health care. More traditional measures of health outcomes and resources seem to matter less as drivers of dissatisfaction.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For governments trying to improve their citizens' satisfaction with the health care they receive, the highest priority would be improving people's basic access to health-care services. Also, it appears that democratic governments are seen as being more responsive to the public's needs in health care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA. chathamkang@gmail.com
authors.forename: Minah K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Blendon
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Benson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D017048:Health Care Costs; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007843:Latin America / Q000453:epidemiology; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000592:standards; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data