Partial-Coverage Co-Payment Funding

In Simple Words

Think of a government coupon that covers half the price of a healthy grocery bill while requiring families to pay the rest out of pocket. This partial coverage stretches government funds to serve twice as many families while ensuring parents select cost-effective providers where they are willing to invest their own money.

Research question

Public voucher programs with fixed nominal values face declining real purchasing power due to inflation, requiring mechanisms that maintain access while managing public budget constraints.

Participants

N = 125,000 voucher recipients across Bogotá and major Colombian cities (1995–1998 cohort).

Study Design

Longitudinal administrative program evaluation tracking voucher subsidy purchasing power relative to private school tuition fees over time.

Results

Inflation reduced public voucher coverage from initial full tuition to 56% of average private school tuition by 1998, requiring low-income target families (strata 1 and 2) to make up the remaining 44% in co-payments while maintaining a 15 to 17 percentage point increase in private school enrollment.

Takeaway

Structure school vouchers as partial tuition subsidies with family co-payments to extend program coverage across broader target populations while maintaining cost discipline.

Read alongside the research

Plain-English glossary

Original explanations, informed by the references below. Examples are illustrations, not data from the studies above. The research text stays unchanged.

Percentage points

The difference between two percentages.

ExampleA rise from 40% to 50% is 10 percentage points. Relative to the starting value, that is a 25% increase.

Office for National Statistics · Percentages ↗Read more about percentage points →

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