1 ROSCAs and high health expenditures Kristiano Raccanello 1 , Jayant Anand 2 , Paola Vega 3 & Giselle Ortega 4 1 Chair, Department of Economics, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Mexico 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology & Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Barron County 3 Head of Regulations Department, Federal Tax Administration, Mexico 4 Head of Projects Evaluation Department, Federal Tax Administration, Mexico Abstract The Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA) is an informal saving method that has important social protection features. However, ROSCAs have limited shocks protection because of the low amounts of money saved. This paper examines the factors related to households’ member participation in ROSCAs. We found that middle income households tend to participate more often and participation seems to be related to cooperation and reciprocity motives among relatives and friends who are most of the ROSCA members. Also, despite the low amount of individual savings in ROSCAs we found that funds accumulated in savings clubs as well as loans from relatives and friends contribute to financing high health expenditures. JEL Classification: D71, G21, I19, O17. Key words: ROSCAs, health expenditures, informal financing, vulnerability, Mexico.