Abstract

Colombia has shown its intention to enter the OECD and during this process, it is important to compare its health indicators with the OCDE#xB4;s countries, taking in account not only the average results, but the differences according to regions, sex, ethnicity and income. The methodology uses has been based on the OECD framework with a broad view of public health, including health status, non-medical determinants of health, health workforce, health care, quality of care, access to care, health expenditure, ageing and long-term care. The main achievements of Colombia are universal coverage and low out-of-pocket payments. Colombia has some opportunities to show better health indicators due to a younger population, lower rates of diabetes and overweight and a low suicide rate compared with OECD countries.