Ecuador has made efforts to establish a universal public healthcare system through initiatives by President Correa since 2006. The goal was to provide high quality, affordable healthcare for all citizens based on a concept of "buen vivir" or good living. While improvements have been made, challenges remain in reaching remote, impoverished communities. Traditional medicine also plays an important role for indigenous groups in the Andes. A clinic in Otavalo provides both modern and traditional medical services tailored to the indigenous population. Overall, Ecuador continues working to expand access and quality of its healthcare while being inclusive of diverse cultural practices.

1. RUNNING HEAD: HEALTHCARE IN ECUADOR Carpio 1
Healthcare in Ecuador
Final Research Paper
Jessica Carpio
HCS 400
Dr.Lewis

2. Healthcare in Ecuador Carpio 2
Healthcare service is a universal necessity to sustain a long healthy life. Although it has
been scientifically proven that access to healthcare is necessary to live longer, not everyone has
access to it. Across the world, different countries tried different methods on what they assumed
the most ideal healthcare would be for them. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of trial and error.
Over the course of Health Care Sciences this semester, it has been discussed how different
countries can create an ideal healthcare system for their citizens that is affordable, public, and
good quality. This particular paper will explain healthcare in the country of Ecuador. Ecuador is
a small country located on the west coast of South America. It is rich in culture and has many
years of tradition living today. Health trends and “buen vivir” lifestyles will be discussed
throughout this paper.
Abstract: healthcare, Ecuador, public health, buen vivir

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Ecuador’s current president Rafael Correa, has made it a mission since his election in
2006 to create a “citizen’s revolution” in the country. A citizen’s revolution is one where the
people of the country are in charge instead of the capital. His main objective was to develop a
society where all the citizens can live good lives through access to important institutions such as
a sustainable economy and healthcare. His goal was to provide a healthcare system with high
quality service for everyone. The new idea of healthcare was inspired by a “buen vivir” way of
life, meaning “good living”. “Buen Vivir” entails delivery of free, high quality, public healthcare
passed in 2008. His goal was so that all persons, Ecuadorians and not, be able to get access to
healthcare in his country. In 2008 the attempt to rewrite the Ecuadorian Constitution occurred,
however the healthcare system was already set as a free market which made it difficult to
change. Today the Ecuadorian government and MOH (Ministry of Health) are the primary
organizations responsible for trying to develop a universal public healthcare system in Ecuador.
The Ministry of Health is a part of the government that focuses on issues related to the general
health of the public. Most recently these organizations have worked to increase accessible
healthcare and intervention programs to the general public in some of the poorest cities of
Ecuador. The MOH has worked to develop private facilities, build public hospitals, and recruit
adequate physicians.
Things seem to be looking good for the people of Ecuador. An article by the Huffington
Post raved about how great and affordable healthcare was in Ecuador. For just $70 a month,

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citizens and legal residents are able to obtain healthcare membership per their own choice. The
new healthcare plan is managed by the country’s social security administration. It revoked age
and pre-existing health condition that restricted people from being able to affordable healthcare
sound somewhat similar to the ACA, Affordable Care Act? The new health system provides full
medical coverage, dental care and free or discounted prescription medicine. The ACA does not
provide dental care, so Ecuador wins that part. Big cities like Cuenca, Quito and Guayaquil
benefit positively with the new healthcare system, the people living in these areas are also able to
afford $70 a month.
The struggle has been to reach out to communities in the southern coast of Ecuador such
as Las Mercedes. Las Mercedes is a poverty stricken community; studies conducted back in 2009
and again in 2013 revealed that communities like Las Mercedes are not provided with high
quality health care services. That research also showed because Las Mercedes is so poverty
stricken it has high percentages of reported dengue fever and malaria. Other infectious diseases
were not even put into record because of low quality health care services for the populations not
being able to record it. Malaria is a serious disease caused by a parasite that infects mosquitos
which then feeds on humans. People who are infected with malaria get very sick with high
fevers, shaking chills, and flu-like symptoms. Dengue-fever is a mosquito borne viral disease. It
is the fastest growing tropical disease in South America. Studies have shown that dengue fever is
easily influenced by climate and unsanitary human behavior. On the coast of southern Ecuador, a

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city called Machala suffers immensely from dengue fever; there studies have been conducted to
verify that ecology and social context influence the spread of dengue fever. Warmer air and
water temperatures increase larvae development thus creating more biting rates. An article
studied suggested that Social Communication strategies were necessary to decrease the rates of
dengue fever in these communities. “Social mobilization and communication interventions
should be developed to increase community members’ dengue knowledge and more importantly
to promote the adoption of preventative behaviors”, (Stewart).
Ecuador suffers more than just from infectious diseases. The most recent reported leading
cause of death in Ecuador recorded in 2013 by the WHO, World Health Organization, was
Ischemic heart disease, killing 8.4 thousands people. Other causes of death were: stroke, lower
respiratory infections/disease, road injury, kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, interpersonal
violence, HIV/AIDS, hypertensive heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver. Life expectancy for
Ecuadorians is 76 years old compared to the United States is 78, which is not much different.
Like here in the United States, natives suffer from nutritional deficiencies as well. Some
areas of Ecuador suffer from iron deficiencies. Children in rural areas are known to suffer more
from iron and zinc deficiencies, like here deficiencies are first noticed through quantitative
measures such as height, weight and age. It could be an environmental affect or biomedical
factor. The country of Ecuador is difficult to breakdown because the climate varies all

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throughout the county. The climate and culture change too. Rural areas such as the Andes
Mountains have a different way of life and eating habits that could be affecting their health.
People living in the Andes use traditional medicine/practice for thousands of years. Some of
them use modern medicine in conjunction with their traditions. It is almost the equivalent of an
Amish person in PA seeking medical attention in a hospital.
People living in the Andes are known as indigenous people and there are an estimated 42
million living in South America. Their basis of good health goes alongside living with a balance
of nature in their lives which is why they choose they stay there because they believe if they
leave it will interfere with the balance. Traditional medicine also plays a big role in their culture.
The WHO states that at least 80% of indigenous people rely on their traditional healing practices
as a primary source of healthcare instead of seeking modern healthcare services.
President Correa is aware of Ecuador’s indigenous population, instead of frowning upon
their culture and traditions there are healthcare services that exist to meet the needs of the
indigenous people when they need it. The Jambi Huasi clinic in Otavalo, which is 70 miles from
Ecuador’s capital Quito, is an example of a nearby clinic that specializes in caring for the
indigenous people. The clinic trains volunteers on how to treat and educate local Andeans. The
name Jambi Huasi is translated to “house of health” in the indigenous people language which is
Quechua. The clinic provides a combination of both modern and traditional medicine.

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Traditional remedies include the use of herbs, amulets, guinea pigs, and incantations to eliminate
disease or cleanse the body (Chelala). Traditional medicine examines the tongue and urine of the
patient; it also examines an egg that has been passed around the patient’s body. The same
technique is used with a guinea pig; it is passed all over the patient’s body and then internally
examined for signs of ailment that could be a signal to where the patient may be sick. Traditional
medicine is vital for Andeans, because it respects “Pachamama” which translates to Mother
Earth. One example of how correlated Mother Nature and health are, is believing diarrhea is
brought on by anger or anxiety as punishment by Mother Nature for failing to feed the earth
and/or care for the animals. Each sickness is cured by a specific cure such as water from fresh
plants or egg and onion soup for diarrhea. The clinic has a physician, a midwife, and a
chiropractor and provides services such as internal medicine, gynecology, pediatrics, minor
surgery, and dentistry. The clinic received much praise for being so inclusive for the people of
the Andes Mountains. The clinic has said to improve the health and quality of life of the
indigenous women of Ecuador and was awarded the International Award for the Health and
Dignity of Women by the United Nations in 2006. The same way this clinic exists to meet the
needs of a particular population is exactly the same effort the United States makes when building
community centers, urgent centers or rural health networks. Patient advocacy is a growing field
in today’s healthcare, the same way volunteers are being trained to understand the Andeans is the
reason why we have such a demand for patient advocates today. An advocate is a supporter,

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believer, or spokesperson who can work well with other members of your healthcare team such
as your doctors and nurses.
The problem arises with something known as the biomedical model of healthcare. The
biomedical model of healthcare suggests that disease originates from individual cellular
abnormalities. The model entails that instead of providing preventative health care to the public
the government acts upon to provide “episodic” emergency style healthcare instead. This is not
ideal; this model acts more reactive than proactive. The new idea President Correa is trying to
implement promotes preventative care and health promotion to effectively address infectious
diseases nationwide. The “buen vivir” model has been difficult to instill because of the
neoliberalism free market mess that was left behind from before Correa’s election. The “free
market” purposed low-cost, quality healthcare to everyone but never occurred because all the
funding went towards clinical services in large hospitals. In 2005, Ecuador suffered severely
from extreme low costs compared to other South American countries. Since the destruction of
neoliberalism, the MOH has greatly influenced the overall healthcare of Ecuador. Instead of the
biomedical view point, the MOH has moved to a more “socialized medicine” view point. Social
Medicine looks at economic, social, environmental and political conditions and examines how all
those factors can contribute to the control of widespread diseases. It is important to examine
some biomedical factors such as medicine, science and research but environmental factors as
pointed out by social medicine can cause great impact on spread of disease. In the recent years,

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Ecuador has worked to install an adequate sewage system in hopes to decrease percentages of
communicable diseases. The MOH has also worked heavily to provide health preventative
education in communities suffering from poverty on topics such as teen pregnancy and use of
drugs.
Utilization of healthcare services varies greatly in socioeconomic status, age, gender and
urban/rural residency both here in the US and Ecuador. Both countries participate in profit and
non-for profit organizations. Since Correa’s presidency, and involvement of the MOH, rates of
access to healthcare have increased from 16 million patients in 2006 to 38 million patients in
2012. Ecuador ranks 111th while the United States ranks 37. It is safe to state that Ecuador has a
good thing going for them. Not all healthcare reform is perfect, new policies take time to instill
and issues will always accompany that. Poverty stricken communities can be found all over the
world, even the United States struggles with poor populations, thus Ecuador should not be
pointed out for their struggling communities. The world as a whole should work together to
conquer poverty because that seems to be an area where a lot of countries struggle with.
“Affordable” healthcare could mean a big difference between two people. While $5 to one
person can be considered extra change, it could mean the burden of a prescription drug cost for
another. That is the only area struggling continuously between Ecuador and the United States.

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Works Cited
Chelala, C. (2009) Health In the Andes: The Modern Role of Traditional Medicine (Part I). The
Globalist.
Ibarra, A. Ryan, S. Beltran, E. Mejia, R. Silva, M. Munoz, A. (2013) Dengue Vector Dynamics
Influenced by Climate and Social Factors in Ecuador: Implications for Targeted Control.
Plos. Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0078263
Lopez-Cevallos,D and Chi, C (2010). Health Utilization in Ecuador: a multilevel analysis of
socio-eonomic determinants and inequality issues. Health Policy Plan. 25 (3 209-218),
doi:10.1093/heapol/czp052.
Peddicord, Kathleen. (2014) Full Medical coverage for just $70 per month-new healthcare option
for residents is one more reason to think about retiring to Ecuador. Huffington Post.
Rasch, D. and Bywater, K. (2014) Health Promotion in Ecuador: A Solution for a Failing
System. Health, 6, 916-925. Doi: 10.4236/health.2014.610115.
Yanez, Andrea. (2013) Public Health Policy in Ecuador under the “Buen Vivir” model of
Development, between 2007 and 2011. Grupo FARO.