Health Sector Spent US$11 Billion Less Than It Budgeted
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Health Sector Spent US$11 Billion Less Than It Budgeted

Photo by:   Emilio Meza
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Rodrigo Andrade By Rodrigo Andrade | Journalist & Industry Analyst - Thu, 01/12/2023 - 15:35

Mexico’s public healthcare sector used only 72.4 percent of its budget during the first 11 months of 2022, for a total of US$11 billion less than budgeted. Healthcare spending reached US$32 billion during that period, a 0.9 percent increase over the previous year, thus maintaining a growth streak since 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Finance (SHCP).

The healthcare budget for 2022 amounted to US$43 billion, aiming to cover all public administration agencies, infrastructure investments, equipment maintenance, payroll and other expenses involved in providing health services.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), countries should allocate 6 percent of their GDP to their public healthcare systems. However, between 2010 and 2022, Mexico only assigned between 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent per year.

About 55 percent of the actual expenditure was used for payroll, while around US$506 million were earmarked for hospital infrastructure. According to Judith Senyacen Méndez, Deputy Director of Research, Center for Economic and Budgetary Research (CIEP), the largest budget expenditures were for PEMEX’s medical services and for Social Security budget programs, according to El Economista. 

Senyacen highlighted the disparity in spending among public organizations, the Federal Ministry of Health (SSA) and IMSS-Bienestar. "The panorama is that there is an inequality in the medical services for PEMEX, IMSS and ISSSTE personnel versus those offered to the population without social security,” she said.

The recovery of the Mexican public health sector through IMSS-Bienestar and the programs to recruit specialists from Mexico and Cuba have been the backbone of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador health campaign. At the end of last year, the president stated that Mexico will have one of the best public health systems in the world by mid-2023. This is not the first time the president made comments of this kind. In early 2022, López Obrador promised that by the end of last year Mexican healthcare would be equal in quality to the one offered in Denmark, Canada and the UK, with free quality care and free medicines for all, as reported by MBN. 

López Obrador has repeatedly stated that the current public healthcare systems problems trace back to past administrations, whose objective was to privatize health and turn it into a privilege. “The school system rejected students at public universities, which caused a shortage of general practitioners. In this scenario Cuba stood in solidarity with Mexico and sent over 500 specialists to tackle this problem,” he said.

Photo by:   Emilio Meza

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