Mexico City.- The director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), Zoé Robledo, reported that at the moment 14 states have joined the federalization plan for health systems announced by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Giving a keynote speech within the framework of the National Social Security Week convened by the Chamber of Deputies, the federal official indicated that San Luis Potosí will also join soon.
Robledo pointed out that they have already begun the preparation of “survey certificates” in 4,200 first, second and third level medical units, to verify what their care programs are like and the gaps in terms of personnel.
He explained that these certificates are mechanisms that serve to establish criteria regarding the comprehensive health care model, know what is needed and have the necessary resources and investments.
So far, Mexico City, Tlaxcala, Colima, Campeche, Baja California Sur, Durango, Michoacán, Morelos, Oaxaca, Sonora, Sinaloa, Tlaxcala, Veracruz and Zacatecas have joined. And this year SLP would be added.
On February 4, the president announced the federalization of state health systems through the IMSS-Wellness program, which means that through collaboration agreements, the states will cede their physical and human infrastructure to IMSS -and not Insabi-. , so that it is the latter that provides health services to the population without social security.
Robledo stressed that this process is the opportunity to standardize in a single care model all those states that request it.
He affirmed that this will be carried out with absolute respect for the labor rights of workers in the sector.
“This is the opportunity for the entire country to have a uniform model in medical care. Today we have 32 different models in 32 states that do things differently, sometimes well, sometimes not so well, and that the approach since the reform of the General Health Law is to create a model of comprehensive care for health, for well-being, the IMSS-Well-being”, he said.
He pointed out that those states that do not join the federalization plan will continue with the current financing model.
The head of the IMSS indicated that currently European and Nordic health services are federalized. As an example, he explained that the National Health Service in England is a centralized system that distributes some functions, but has a common floor and a broad minimum coverage.
“That is why it was necessary to federalize, federalize in the opposite direction to decentralization, it can be very positive that a state government or a municipal government, even, assume tasks that previously belonged to the Federation, but perhaps never in health,” he considered.
