INTRODUCTION: The Brazilian private health insurance sector has operated since 1940’s without regulation. In 1998, the Brazilian Government stating the regulation of this sector. The reform improved the health insurance coverage level, stating no limit to physician visits and proibition to...

It remains unclear whether governments can improve health outcomes by solely increasing public spending on health care. In this paper, we provide first causal evidence on the impact of an increase in public spending on primary care on health care-seeking and mortality. We employ an event study...