Health coverage plan outlined

Monday, 24 February 2014 00:10 
THE NEWS


Health Secretary Mercedes Juan participated in the “Towards Universal Health Coverage” international conference on Sunday, where she spoke on the Mexican government’s experience in implementing the Popular Insurance social program, which aims to ensure that all Mexicans have access to healthcare.

The conference, which was organized by the Peruvian Health Ministry and held in Lima, brought together health officials from different governments to discuss their successes and failures in trying to ensure universal health coverage for their citizens.

During the conference, Juan spoke about the lessons the Mexican government has learned from the National Health Protection Commission’s expansion in coverage through the Popular Insurance program, including explicit definition of the scope of coverage through the Universal Health Services Catalog (Causes), which defines the health services to which the program’s beneficiaries have access, and the Catastrophic Expense Protection Fund, which provides emergency funds for catastrophic health expenses.

She said that Popular Insurance still faces many challenges, such as reducing out-of-pocket expenses and ensuring that patients have access to quality health services. She also presented several points for a planned reform that would bring Mexico closer to the construction of a universal healthcare system and overcome the problems created by the fragmentation of the country’s healthcare system, making a more efficient use of resources and strengthening the control of the Health Secretariat over all areas that fall under its jurisdiction.
The conference also included a panel discussion by former health ministers and experts on the challenges facing attempts to ensure primary health care coverage, which included representatives from Belgium, Ecuador, the United States, France and Uruguay.

Other attendees included Carissa Etienne, director of the Panamerican Health Organization; Timothy Evans, director of Health, Nutrition and Population for the World Bank; Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology at the University of London and representatives of the Interamerican Development Bank.

While receiving a special recognition from the Peruvian government, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan thanked the Mexican Health Secretariat for acting with a sense of global responsibility during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic.