Hey guys, I am doing a project (due tomorrow D:) on the country of Mexico. While I can grab the information about the government and healthcare in Mexico - is there any AE literature on the country’s Healthcare system?
All I know is that it’s mixed public and private - are the problems there similar to the problems we have here? Is it, as DiLorenzo stated, Fascialism? Any articles, books, whatever is greatly appreciated. I’m half-Mexican so this is a very very interesting topic for me.
I am a Mexican-American. My father opted to die with dignity using hospice while in Texas when he got the terminal diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer with a 30-day probability of life expectancy. He was 65, my grandmother visited him from Mexico and could not accept the plan. She said that in Mexico he would have been forced to go to the hospital to put IVs in him and keep him alive. I tried to explain that in the U.S. patients have the right to die with dignity when receiving a terminal diagnosis.
It didn’t end well - I had to kick her out of my father’s home and I “cursed” and excommunicated from the entire family.
I had a Spanish speaking physician speak to her about the dying process. She pretended to agree and when I caught her my aunt (her daughter) force-feeding my father and the food went down his windpipe, I ordered her to leave. Enough was enough. My father had just had a stroke and wanted to be left alone and to be pain free. I could see it in my father’s eyes that he desperately needed my help. I took action. Was it the right one? All I know is that my father’s dying wishes trumped my grandmother’s. So be it. He died peacefully, 2 days after she left.
Hello! The best resources you can find on the issue in English are from websites that talk about gringos and other expats living in mexico. Here’s a link: http://www.mexperience.com/liveandwork/healthinmexico.php. If your spanish is workable I can provide you with more comprehensive, less rosy articles from the local press.
I’m a mexican living in Mexico and can give you a quick overview of the system: We have a mixed private/public system that strives to meet the needs of the whole population. Obviously it fails in doing so but meh… I honestly think americans have it worse. The public part of the sistem is divided into “Social Security” and “Popular Insurance” at the federal level, the latter being a new abomination introduced by our allegedly neoliberal president. Social Security covers all employees working in the formal economy. You work, pay taxes AND pay a social security fee. You can then use any hospital anywhere in the nation if you have a problem.
As you would expect from public hospitals, the quality leaves a lot to be desired. Hygene is apparently of no concern to the managers, and it’s strictly a bring your own blankets and be your own nurse operation. However, they get things done. My great grandmother broke her hip a few years ago and they fixed her right up with some surgery and special bearings brought in from Germany on Christmas! I find that the wages and benefits attract some competent practitioners who do the job out of a charitable mentality more than out of profit-seeking motives (at least directly, I explain below). The competence of the doctors and other medical staff is not the issue… it’s how the clinics and hospitals are run.
At the state and county level, the local public university usually manages a public hospital half run with charitable donations and half taxpayers money. For example, in Guadalajara, the University manages the Civil Hospital, which dates back to colonial times. It’s usually a training ground for the medical students, and not completely free. Prices are at a deep discount from normal market prices. Again, medical staff is top notch but the hospital is run like a… government institution.
As for the private side we have everything: quacks and ritualistic healers, charity doctors that charge 2 dollars for a quick check up and diagnosis all the way up to luxury hospitals with some of the best staff and standards in the world. Also, there’s private insurance that’s more deregulated than in the US, so premiums are not prohibitive. Private practitioners take advantage of public subsidies. They usually work part time at the Social Security hospital, where they refer the patients to their own private clinics, thus they pocket a government salary and the patients fees when they come to their private practices. In my view, that’s the reason doctors at the federal hospitals are generally competent: they use the public hospital as an opportunity to advertise themselves.
