How Can the Health System Achieve a Maximum Return?
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How Can the Health System Achieve a Maximum Return?

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Wed, 09/05/2018 - 09:32

Mexico’s growing economy requires an efficient healthcare system to serve its population but budget cuts have plagued the sector for several years now. Under these circumstances, many in the industry are looking for strategies to optimize the existing budget and provide more services with the same or fewer resources. Mexico Health Review spoke with healthcare leaders and experts to obtain their opinion on how to address current gaps in healthcare amid reduced budgets.

Francesca Colombo

Head of Health Division
OCDE

Mexico has come a long way when it comes to the performance of its health. There are still several challenges ahead and it is necessary to address the system’s fragmentation by creating a universal, more level-playing, health system. The challenge for Mexico would be to improve the provision of services towards a model in which all providers attend to the needs of the population regardless of their affiliation to a particular institution. Access to care should be determined by need rather than employment status. Closer collaboration between the government and the health industry can help improve the level of access and quality of healthcare in Mexico.

Marco Antonio Navarrete

Marco Antonio Navarrete

Deputy Director of Health Services
PEMEX

The public sector advances step by step towards different health models. SEDENA and PEMEX share a similar vision of centralized health governance, which facilitates the quick implementation of initiatives and models. Policies and priorities in other public health institutions vary according to the person in charge and the micro-world around them. Federal institutions such as the Seguro Popular and the Ministry of Health are served by federal secretariats that slow down the effectiveness and quality of healthcare. We should rethink the federalization of health.

Francisco Soberón

Francisco Soberón

Director General
INMEGEN

The country will continue to face budgetary issues, so financing will require innovative strategies. PPPs are a possibility since the private sector is likely to be the most qualified to provide these services to the public sector. Another possibility is the creation of a federal budget specifically for these services. Other countries have included personalized medicine as part of their federal budget and have even provided hundreds of millions of dollars in seed capital. The US and many European countries have programs of this kind and Mexico could implement something similar. A multiyear budget that incorporates private capital would greatly benefit the sector. We will present this initiative to the Ministry of Health and the Congress.

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