ABSTRACT
Mutual benefit societies are extensively involved in the social protection systems of many countries. Providing health coverage is their main area of action. Whether managing a basic or a supplementary scheme, or both, mutual benefit societies are inextricably involved in access to health care. By entering into an agreement with an association of general physicians and with the main sickness insurance fund—that covering salaried employees—the system has ensured that the exemption from advance payment is fully applied for most members of the mutual benefit scheme. The example of Uruguay shows how the ideas of mutual benefit brought by European immigrants to Latin America are alive and active. Since the sixteenth century, all the countries in the region have received large influxes of migrants, mostly from European countries bordering the Mediterranean. There was also forced migration from Africa, especially during the eighteenth century.
