Provision of health care services is managed by the Seguro de Enfermedad y Maternidad (SEM), a distribution fund into which all contributions are placed and which covers the expenses of all health services. Indeed, in 2002, when the effects of the economic, institutional and political crisis were being felt with a vengeance (recall the “corralitd’, and the subsequent social crisis that led to President de la Riia’s resignation in December 2001), the percentage of the population that felt that income distribution was very unfair rose to 64%, the highest level for the three years analysed (1997, 2002 and 2007) as well as for the 18 countries in question. The sharp drop to 31% in this indicator in 2007 does not mean that there was a change or reversal of perceptions, but rather that opinions became less polarized. In other words, the opinion of those who felt that income distribution was “very unfair” did not change to “very fair” or to “fair”, but rather to merely “unfair".