El Salvador

The health of El Salvadorians is undermined by low levels of sanitation and limited access to clean drinking water in rural areas. The Salvadoran government has moved to introduce patient-oriented reforms in health care, in order to solve the problems of the unsustainable and indebted centralised system it had before. These reforms have been controversial. Access to medicine is complicated for the poor by a high cumulative tax/tariff burden (13% tax and 5% tariff) on all pharmaceutical imports. Administrative corruption is also common where drugs must be authorised by the government.