EL PRIMER SEGURO SOCIAL DE COSTA RICA

Abstract

During the first half of the XIX century, Costa Rica was transformed from a colonial province to a federal state and finally into an independent republic. One of the primary needs in infrastructure, in order to get improved access to international commerce, was the building up of road to the Caribbean coast. In 1839, the Government proposed a project to built a road from the village of Paraiso near the Cartago, the country capital, to Matina, a small town near the Port of Moín in the Caribbean. The project, called “El Camino a Matina” (The road to Matina), started in 1840 and known unhealthy conditions along this territory caused severe effects in the health of workers, therefore sanitary assistance became a need. A series of political decisions to set up a health care system build were taken. The present report describes the creation and operation of a brief sanitary program developed for the “Camino a Matina” workers assistance. This program provided protection against labor risks and had some peculiar characteristics like prepaid compulsory financing system and sharing fees between workers and employers. This health program was developed four decades before social insurances programs were approved in Germany as universally accepted.