Mexico City.- Although IMSS-Bienestar is surpassing the spending of its predecessors – the now defunct Institute of Health for Well-being and Seguro Popular – this has been insufficient to benefit people without social security, according to Mexico Evalúa.
In a report, the think tank said health spending for this population group has seen limited growth and in per capita terms remains below 2018 levels.
In this context, México Evalúa believes that the Administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador will leave Claudia Sheinbaum a health fund for people without social security that is lower than the one he received from Enrique Peña Nieto.
Overall, spending amounted to 163 billion pesos in the first half of 2024, an annual real increase of 25 percent (33 billion pesos) compared to 2023 but only 5.9 percent (9.1 billion pesos) more than in 2018 (the last year of the Peña Nieto Administration).
To calculate the health expenditure of people without social security, México Evalúa considered the expenditure of the Ministry of Health, the Decentralized Public Agency IMSS-Bienestar (Branch 47), the IMSS-Bienestar Program (Branch 19) and the Fund for Contributions to Health Services (FASSA).
“The above means that this expenditure averages only a one percent increase annually. This increase pales in comparison to the expansion of health expenditure of the system that serves insured persons: this reached 221.6 billion pesos in June 2024; it grew 23% (41.1 billion pesos) since 2018,” the organization contrasted.
Therefore, according to México Evalúa, IMSS-Bienestar has not brought about a significant increase in spending for people without social security that could reduce the gap that separates them from insured people.
He added that the cost per person without social security remains lower than at the end of the previous six-year term. As of June 2024, it averages 2,477 pesos per person, 13.8 percent (397 pesos) less than in 2018.
The above is due to the fact that during the EPN Administration the target population of the health system for people without social security was based on members of Seguro Popular, which in 2018 were 53.5 million, while the target population determined by both Insabi and IMSS-Bienestar (which emerged during the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador) amounts to 65.8 million people, 12.3 million more than in 2018.
“Even though there are more resources, when they are divided among more people, they are not enough,” the organization concluded.
He indicated that the large increase in IMSS-Bienestar spending is due to the huge transfers to the Health Fund for Welfare (Fonsabi).
“This Fund has stopped financing catastrophic illnesses and has allowed the outflow of resources to the Treasury of the Federation (Tesofe) where the money trail is lost. As of the first quarter of the year, deliveries to trusts total 13.4 billion pesos. That is, 182 percent (8.7 billion pesos) more than in 2023.
“If we discount these transfers, health spending for people without social security in 2024 would be 149.5 billion pesos, 2.8 percent (4.3 billion pesos) lower than in 2018,” he said.
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