Reforming the Mexican Health System to Achieve Effective Health Care Coverage

Abstract

Despite important progress in financial protection with the last health reform implemented since 2003 with Seguro Popular, effective access to health care in Mexico has not yet been fully achieved. The vision of the present Mexican health administration, 2012-2018, is to transform the Mexican health care system so that it ensures equitable and effective access to quality health care, regardless of the labor or socioeconomic status of the person who seeks care. This article is an overview of how we at the Ministry of Health plan to fulfill this vision. It analyzes three challenges that the Mexican health system currently faces to achieve effective access to quality health care and proposes specific strategies to address them. The first step to fulfill that vision is to strengthen the stewardship role of the Ministry of Health, through instruments such as new legal frameworks and better information for more effective regulation and permanent monitoring and evaluation of the health care system's performance, with a focus on quality of health care. In the short term, better coordination between institutions should be achieved by ensuring that resources follow the patient where she receives care through the instruments suggested above and by guaranteeing that resources are used efficiently and in a transparent manner. In the long term, Mexico's health care system should adapt its infrastructure and human resources to deliver primary care services to effectively meet the increasing demands for chronic disease prevention and management.

Universal Health Coverage and Social Health Protection: Policy relevance to health system financing reforms

“…Similarly, until recently Mexico covered its population with various schemes managed by different institutions; the Mexican Social Security Institute ( Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social – IMSS) and a health insurance scheme called the Seguro Popular programme established in 2003. The latter aimed to provide health coverage to Mexico’s large uninsured population (Juan López, Martínez Valle and Aguilera, 2015).…”

A systematic review of the literature on the impact of the Seguro Popular

“…The SP was successful in enrolling the uninsured population [ 8 ]. However, the picture arising from the body of evidence is less clear concerning the impact on the beneficiaries' access to healthcare and health status.…”

Incremental Risk of Developing Severe COVID-19 Among Mexican Patients With Diabetes Attributed to Social and Health Care Access Disadvantages

“…One of the LMICs with the highest case numbers of COVID-19 is Mexico (817,503 cases and 83,781 deaths as of 12 October 2020) ( 2 ), where diabetes affects 15.2% of the population (12.8 million adults) ( 6 ) and is the leading cause of disability and mortality ( 7 , 8 ). Before the COVID-19 outbreak, type 2 diabetes, which is highly prevalent among individuals of low socioeconomic status in Mexico ( 9 ), represented one of the most significant challenges to Mexican health care ( 10 , 11 ), a fragmented health system, in a major process of transition, with well-documented disparities in health care delivery ( 12 – 15 ). The convergence of the COVID-19 and diabetes epidemics has widened these preexisting health disparities in Mexico ( 16 ), thus raising the urgent need to better understand factors associated with poor outcomes among individuals with diabetes and COVID-19.…”