ABSTRACT
Of Peru's population of 19 million in 1984, approximately 11 million were medically indigent, and thus depended on the Ministry of Health (MOH) to provide them with health care, including essential medicines. Public health sector institutions, particularly the MOH and Institute of Social Security, need appropriately-designed and efficiently-administered personnel policies, in order to relieve the inequitable distribution of medical personnel. Incentives should include not only adequate remuneration, fringe benefits, and pensions, but also opportunities for professional advancement and the delegation of health care decision-making to lower levels of personnel. Leaders of private institutions in the Peruvian health sector should establish a common forum within which to analyze and debate their role in providing Peruvians with improved and expanded health services coverage at affordable prices. Private health care providers who have initiated prepayment plans for individual subscribers should be encouraged to expand their coverage under these plans.
