Precarious social condition of the middle and low-middle strata in Chile and Costa Rica: practices of everyday

living management of household

Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development: Action and Impact

8-12 July, Stockholm, 2012

Daniel VeraMonica BudowskiUniversity of Fribourg, Switzerland

Introduction

Structural changes in LA since 90 Changes in the structure of social stratification and

mobility patterns Middle social strata are growing in size and

heterogeneity in the last years Middle social strata show a certain insecure, rotation

about poverty line and relative precarious material well-being

Context of our subject

Precarious social conditions of middle and low-middle strata

Relative poverty

Chronic poverty

Poverty line

Middle and low-middle

strata

High-middle strata

High strata

Research questions

• What characterizes the living conditions of middle and low-middle households in two countries – Chile and Costa Rica? • To what extent do social practices to manage every life conditions vary according to welfare regime?

• What differences and similarities do we find between these two cases?

Preliminary results Health problems and how they are managed

Chile, Household CL03:

Man works as informatics technician with contract employment at the private university; woman works as school bus driver (part time job) without contract employment; they have two children and have a income decile VI; they own their house, are paying mortgage and have a public health insurance

The woman experienced health problems during her pregnancy; also the older children had health problems. The household decided to take on debts to pay health care in private service (and not make use of their public health care)

This decision leads them into a high financial debt and a writ of seizure later on

Preliminary results

Costa Rica, Household CR21:

- Man works self-employed in sales; woman also works self-employed in sales (part time job); they have three children and an income decile VII; they own their house and have a public health insurance

-Woman has had different health problems related to appendicitis and kidneys

-Household uses private health care only when they require a checkup or ambulatory medical care, but when they need an operation or a complex medical assistance (more expensive treatment), they go to public health care

Preliminary results -Although both households have public health insurance, they make use of the private health care services to receive medical care, yet for different purposes

-Both households prefer to use private health care services because they believe these are faster, more appropriate and of higher quality than the public health care

-The large offer of private health care services and financial services to take on credits as well as the public health insurance with free choice to type of health care (public or private), increases the use of private services in Chile

Preliminary results

-The limited private health care services, the limited financial services to take up credits and to organization of public health insurance, limits the use of private service in Costa Rica

-Though both households value the free choice to use health care, the Chilean household believes that the management of health depends more on its own capacity and responsibility

- The Costa Rican household uses private health care more as a short-term tactical action, while it still values the public health care to manage its main health problems

Thank you for your attention