The Ailing Healthcare System of Mexico: Should It Take Inspiration from COVID-19?
The entry of COVID-19 in Mexico has revealed a hint of the shortages and needs of the country's healthcare system. Every year, the Mexican government allocates billions of pesos for the healthcare sector of the country. However, it is still not enough.
Malpractices on Budgets
According to a review conducted by Mexico City's local newspaper, El Universal, there were malpractices on the budget. These include salary payments to non-existing doctors, purchase of over-priced medicines, and the fund allocation for union commissions and Christmas bonuses that were not included in the sector's budget.
Reports for the Irregularities
These irregularities were found in multiple reports released by the Federal Superior Auditor, also called the ASF, in the past decade from 2009 to 2018.
In 10 years, the audit office discovered irregularities amounting to 42 billion pesos. Only six percent of the public resources were taken back.
Every year, the audit office discovers these irregularities. However, the punishment for these crimes is minimal. Some of these crimes get lost due to the occurrence of other events, and people never learn to properly resolve such cases.
Frequently, these irregularities occur during emergencies. And these irregularities are typically occurring in almost all levels of authority in the country.
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Losing the Opportunity to Launch Projects
Mexico's healthcare is provided by public organizations operated by government departments, private medical centers, and private physicians. The Mexican Federal Constitution gives the primary responsibility to the state to support the health of the national population.
Due to these acts, Mexico loses the opportunity to launch projects to help the health care system of the country to win over the insufficiencies that the sector had suffered from for years.
For many years, the improvement of the Mexican healthcare system has been postponed due to corruption and the incompetency of the country's leaders.
The Healthcare Sector in Mexico Amid COVID-19
Currently, the county is battling with an invisible enemy, and it seems that it will not surrender anytime soon. Since the arrival of the deadly COVID-19 in the country, the issues inside the health sector and the security sector of Mexico have become more evident.
To add to this, the current government may be correct to say that it is now controlling public resources due to the former irregularities reported in the different states of the country. However, due to this decision, any deviation discovered will be left unpunished. It was also not yet explained how the federal government would be implementing measures to prevent malpractices.
The COVID-19 pandemic confirms the extreme importance of the healthcare system in the country. Mexico should then consider that this global COVID-19 health crisis is a good reason to start improving the healthcare system in the country as it will be unjust not to allow the country to get any lessons from this pandemic.
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