["ObamaCare": effects for the health reform in Chile]

Health care raises structural issues in a democratic society, such as the role assigned to the central government in the management of health risk and the redistributive consequences generated by the implementation of social insurance. These are often cause of strong political controversy. This paper examines the United States of America health reform, popularly known as "ObamaCare". Its three main elements, namely individual mandate, creation of new health insurance exchanges, and the expansion of Medicaid, generated a redistribution of health risks in the insurance market of that country after almost a century of frustrated legislative efforts to guarantee minimum universal coverage. The article proposes that a change of this magnitude in the United States will produce effects in a forthcoming parliamentary discussion on the health reform in Chile, which still maintains a highly deregulated private health system.