[Economic assessment of the epidemiological profile change: information for health care reforms]

Taking into account the information needed to implement the reform process of the health sector, we present the results of an analysis of costs and the financial consequences of the epidemiological change of four tracer diseases in Mexico, two chronic (diabetes and hypertension) and two infectious diseases (pneumonias and diarrheas). The hospital cost-case management of diabetes expected for 1998 represents the same amount of hospital and ambulatory case management of diarrheas and pneumonias for the same year. The internal competition for resource allocations that is expected, among other factors, is one of the results that permits the argument that changes in the epidemiological profile generate relevant financial consequences in the planning and implementing of structural reforms of the health systems, particularly with regards to the patterns of resource allocation for specific health programs.