Érika Hernández and Benito Jiménez/ Reform Agency
Tuesday, December 27, 2022 | 11:33
CDMX.- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has lashed out at critics of public health services and spending, blaming neoliberalism for the shortcomings.
He also assured that in 2023 the country will have a public health system like Denmark’s, or even better.
“By the end of next year at the latest we already have a public health system like Denmark’s and it may be better and I’m going to explain why we are going to have a public health system like Denmark’s where medical care, medicines they are free. In Denmark they have policies that were completely unattainable in Mexico because in Denmark to begin with there is no corruption and they have something called the Welfare State,” he said in a morning conference.
“Thirty years of neglect, Mexico in 30 years became the champion in diseases that could have been prevented chronic degenerative diseases obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia and others, those 30 years of neoliberal regime that are defended so vehemently are not taken into account Those were the years where it increased and changed, in medical care there was a turnaround and we went from treating diseases, gynecological and obstetric care, contagious diseases or accidents, to treating diseases that could have been avoided,” said the head of the IMSS. , Zoe Robledo.
REFORMA published today that Mexican households spend seven times more on health than the federal government.
During 2021, one of the years hit by the pandemic, households spent more than one trillion 77 billion pesos on health. Meanwhile, the resources allocated to Branch 12 Health in the Expenditure Budget last year amounted to just 145 thousand 414 million pesos.
López Obrador promised that there will be specialist doctors, enough medicines, without long waits for attention and without paying.
“We are going to guarantee how in Denmark a quality health system for all, that is, that patients will be able to reach health centers, which will be in good condition, where they will see general practitioners every day, where They will see medicines, but they will also have access to second-level hospitals, as was proposed here with specialists,” he said.
“That is my commitment, it will be like Denmark next year, with doctors with specialists, without having to take time to be treated, with all the medicines and without paying, all the services are free.”
