3 research outputs found
The quest for universal health coverage: achieving social protection for all in Mexico
Mexico is reaching universal health coverage in 2012. A national health insurance programme called Seguro Popular, introduced in 2003, is providing access to a package of comprehensive health services with financial protection for more than 50 million Mexicans previously excluded from insurance. Universal coverage in Mexico is synonymous with social protection of health. This report analyses the road to universal coverage along three dimensions of protection: against health risks, for patients through quality assurance of health care, and against the financial consequences of disease and injury. We present a conceptual discussion of the transition from labour-based social security to social protection of health, which implies access to effective health care as a universal right based on citizenship, the ethical basis of the Mexican reform. We discuss the conditions that prompted the reform, as well as its design and inception, and we describe the 9-year, evidence-driven implementation process, including updates and improvements to the original programme. The core of the report concentrates on the effects and impacts of the reform, based on analysis of all published and publically available scientific literature and new data. Evidence indicates that Seguro Popular is improving access to health services and reducing the prevalence of catastrophic and impoverishing health expenditures, especially for the poor. Recent studies also show improvement in effective coverage. This research then addresses persistent challenges, including the need to translate financial resources into more effective, equitable and responsive health services. A next generation of reforms will be required and these include systemic measures to complete the reorganisation of the health system by functions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the Mexican quest to achieve universal health coverage and its relevance for other low-income and middle-income countries
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Global lessons of the mexican health reform: empowerment through the use of evidence
This paper illustrates, using as an example the recent reform of the Mexican health system, the potential of knowledge in the design and implementation of public policies. In the first part the relationship between knowledge and health is described. In part two, the efforts in Mexico to generate evidence that would eventually nourish the design and implementation of health policies are discussed. In the following sections the content and the guiding concept of the reform, the democratization of health, are analyzed. The paper concludes with the discussion of the main global lessons of this reform experience.
En este art铆culo se ilustra, con la reciente reforma al sistema mexicano de salud, el potencial del conocimiento en el dise帽o e implantaci贸n de las pol铆ticas p煤blicas. En primer lugar se discute la relaci贸n entre conocimiento y salud. En una segunda parte se describen los esfuerzos que se llevaron a cabo en M茅xico para generar evidencias que eventualmente nutrieron el dise帽o e implantaci贸n de las pol铆ticas locales de salud. En seguida se analizan los contenidos de la reforma del sistema mexicano de salud y su concepto rector, La democratizaci贸n de la atenci贸n a la salud. El art铆culo concluye con una discusi贸n de las lecciones globales de esta experiencia de reforma