AMLO to Use High-Cost Disease Funds to Ensure Viability of Health Reform
14 agosto 2019

Between August 7 and 9, the Deputies’ Health Committee organized an Open Parliament, a form of interaction between citizens and legislative powers. The initiative was held to discuss the bill to reform the national health system and create the National Institute of Health for Welfare (INSABI for its acronym in Spanish). The bill is expected to be approved by the Representatives in the plenary in September. In order to finance this health reform, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said that he will assign 2 billion dollars from the Fund for Protection against Catastrophic Expenses, created to help people suffering from high-cost diseases, including cancer. 

AMLO confirmed that the government will use this money to invest in the creation of INSABI and ensure the supply of medicines, meaning that over 50% of the budget currently allocated to high-cost treatments, including cancer and AIDS care, will be used to finance the new system. 

The health system reform being driven by the AMLO administration has prompted an adverse reaction among health sector experts, including former health secretaries Guillermo Soberón, Julio Frenk, José Córdova, Salomón Chertorivsky, Mercedes López and José Narro who published a letter containing their recommendations. They question the proposal to eliminate the Seguro Popular, the system which provides health services to people lacking social security. Another issue of concern is the Executive’s plan to “recentralize the health system” and in the process eliminate the current National Commission for Social Protection in Health, a federal institution that administers and supervises the use of resources providing health services to the population affiliated with the Popular Insurance system.

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