[Cost of care of arterial hypertension and its impact on the budget assigned to health in Mexico].

Objective: To assess the medical care costs of hypertension and their impact on the health care expenditures and on Mexico's Gross National Product (GNP).

Material And Methods: An ecological study was conducted from June to November 1999, at Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (Mexican Institute of Social Security, IMSS), in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. A random sample of medical charts of patients with hypertension was selected, to extract data on utilization of health services and unitary costs per care episode.