Health, 2019, 11, 1299-1319 https://www.scirp.org/journal/health ISSN Online: 1949-5005 ISSN Print: 1949-4998 DOI: 10.4236/health.2019.1110100 Oct. 16, 2019 1299 Health Health Systems in Latin America: Principal Components of Attention Cristina Gomes Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, FLACSO Mexico, Population and Develpment, Mexico City, Mexico Abstract This article discusses the evolution of healthcare systems in Latin American countries, their origins and main characteristics and sources of financing, coverage and the availability of services and human resources from the Do- nabedian perspective, which also considers indicators of behaviors and prefe- rences and social values underlying healthcare in different societies. The me- thod adopted is the estimation of correlations and principal components to explore how health expenditures, poverty and inequalities are associated with healthcare indicators such as life expectancy, immunizations, treatments of- fered by health systems in transmissible and chronic diseases, considering in- direct indicators of patient’s behaviors and preferences, as well as social val- ues and cultural diversity in Latin American societies. The results show that the expansion and actual availability of immunization, treatments against transmissible diseases and hospital beds are the main criteria responsible for the results in healthcare and increase in life expectancy; the availability of health services is an important component for secondary level of care and al- lows the population to be committed to positive behaviors in a context of po- verty and inequalities, with disadvantages for indigenous people. Keywords Healthcare, Poverty, Inequalities, Latin America, Indigenous 1. Introduction Healthcare systems in Latin America originated in the early twentieth century. Initially corporate insurance was created by workers in sectors such as industry, commerce, banking, and public service, among others. In these corporate insti- tutions of mutualism, workers and employers both contributed to ensuring that healthcare was available to staff. On the other hand, philanthropic institutions, How to cite this paper: Gomes, C. (2019) Health Systems in Latin America: Principal Components of Attention. Health, 11, 1299- 1319. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2019.1110100 Received: September 6, 2019 Accepted: October 13, 2019 Published: October 16, 2019 Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access