The deficiencies and deterioration in health care in the public sector in recent years in Mexico have not led us and will not lead us towards the promised Nordic system like Denmark’s. What yes, they are pushing an evident and growing role of private medical services that, due to the increased demand, have been growing at an excessive rate.
And this is being noticed by both the hospital industry, as well as that of diagnostic laboratories, such as pharmacies (sale of medicines) or outpatient care or private consultations; there are the more than 17,000 doctor’s offices adjacent to pharmacies serving 10 million people each month, which instead of wanting to disappear them -as undersecretary López-Gatell envisioned- rather it will be necessary to see how to regulate them and incorporate them into public policies in the future .
Even those who are beneficiaries of public institutions prefer to pay again to receive care in private instances; and there is the consequent notorious increase in out-of-pocket spending that as a country is too inefficient and catastrophic for so many families that are forced to exercise it.
The fact is that private medical care assumes an increasingly stronger role to the extent that it will no longer require permission to collaborate with the public sector -as happened in 2020 during the worst moments of the pandemic-, but the need itself is placing private services in a position of undeniable strength of their own that will lead them to assume a determining role in the direction of the health of Mexicans.
And this is being glimpsed by the main bodies that group the country’s private hospitals: the National Association of Private Hospitals (ANHP), chaired by Héctor Flores, and the Mexican Hospital Consortium led by Javier Potes. Both know that the future of private healthcare in Mexico must be discussed. A few months ago, the CMH held a successful discussion on the matter in the Chamber of Deputies, and the ANHP will hold its congress on June 22 and 23: The future of the health system in Mexico; looking for solutions together.
The great challenge is for private health services to have the willingness and capacity to build a true health ecosystem, a system where, to begin with, the different levels of care are connected – from the first contact, intermediate care to emergency services. high specialty. It will have to be figured out how to go there.
The role of the financial sector, in this case the insurers that cover medical expenses, is vital and the Mexican Association of Insurance Institutions (AMIS) directed by Norma Alicia Rosas, also has to square the circle to rethink and maintain a transparent relationship with the hospital industry and with doctors; The time has come when it is already a matter of survival.
Some insurers are exploring and decided to venture into the health care business itself to fully understand it. This is the case of Axa with its successful network of Axa Keralty clinics that already number more than 20 in 17 states. More recently, Bupa Mexico became the first insurer in the country to have its own hospital by
acquire Bité Médica last November for 350 million pesos, located in Santa Fe in Mexico City.
An interesting rearrangement is coming. It is a complex process that should be rushed because we cannot waste more time. Along the way, cases such as the deadly outbreak of fungal meningitis occur in 4 private hospitals in Durango. We will see in this 2023 how the chips are rearranged. The players in the private health industry should know that if they manage to form a true system, they will be able to better assume that role in the health coverage of Mexicans and be part of the long-term solution.
They push the crisis in Birmex to the limit
The crisis in Birmex is on the edge. The financial bankruptcy has already passed to the workplace because the workers are beginning to violate the contract; They were paid half of the Christmas bonus and the seniority awards were reduced. And well, they are already mobilizing: the complaints accumulate in Conciliation and Arbitration and they have everything to gain since the company is acting outside the law. Retired General Jens Pedro Lohmann seeks at all costs to get rid of the base workers, forcing Birmex to become a distributor, ignoring that its staff is trained to produce vaccines, biologicals, and reagents. The incongruous thing is that while they force and strangle the long-standing workers as much as possible, on the other hand, the newly hired workers are given bonuses. This is the case, for example, of the Director of Administration and Finance, Diana Soto, who is paid $102,205 pesos a month or the director of quality control and assurance, María Verónica Ortega, who receives $91,714 pesos a month, the same as the director of marketing, Vanessa Prieto Barrientos.
The return of specialized distributors
It seems that specialized distributors are no longer the villain of the six-year term. Accused of concentrating the market in a few hands and of being corrupt, this administration had put them aside by bringing in the logistics operators, but 4 years later -without pointing out or pursuing any specific case- they reopened the door to returning distributors for their privileges. In the calls for the purchase of medicines for the 2023 supply, Insabi accepted offers from distribution companies under the previous scheme, that is, allowing them to take charge of the entire process until the last mile. Clearly the 4T already realized that under their scheme the broth was more expensive than the meatballs…
ISSSTE conciliation meeting with union
Another institute that is already in great trouble forcing things with its workers is ISSSTE. On the one hand, it spares them the most basic inputs to work, but what it does invest in is digital tools to control their schedules. The most outraged are the doctors who marched through the streets of Mexico City a few days ago demanding respect for their won labor rights. For now, ISSSTE and SNTISSSTE agreed to a conciliation meeting for tomorrow, Tuesday the 17th, and in the meantime, medical personnel were warned that they must register in and out of their clinics and hospitals.
