In the first year, Insabi faces Covid, reduction of resources …

With a 33 percent reduction in spending per person compared to Seguro Popular, this January 1, the Institute of Health for Wellbeing (Insabi) will complete one year of operations, a period in which it has joined to face the pandemic in the country.

The health agency emerged as a replacement for Seguro Popular, which operated for 14 years, to provide free health services to people without social security; although to date, it does not have an exact number of beneficiaries, because it is not a requirement to join to access its services.

During 2020, the transition to this new health system was marked by conflicts with some governors over the adhesion mechanism and the management of resources, as well as the Covid-19 epidemic, which began a few months later.

On November 29, 2019, the decree that amended, added and repealed articles of the general laws of Health and of the National Institutes of Health was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation to support the creation of Insabi.

According to the amendment, Insabi aims to “provide and guarantee the free provision of health services, medicines and other supplies associated with people without social security, as well as promote, in coordination with the Ministry of Health in its capacity as governing body, actions aimed at achieving an adequate integration and articulation of the public institutions of the National Health System ”.

They alert for insufficient resources for 2021. On the operation of Insabi, the Center for Economic and Budgetary Research (CIEP) warned that Insabi plans to serve 77 million people; However, annual per capita spending dropped 33 percent, from 3,000 607 pesos in 2020 to 2,602 pesos per person for the following year.

He also pointed out that “highly specialized diseases will be financed with the FSB (Health Fund for Well-being). This fund had a balance, as of the second quarter of 2020, of 97 thousand 108 million pesos (mp) ”. However, for the start of operations of Insabi it was contemplated to use 40 billion pesos from the FSB.

According to the director of Insabi, Juan Ferrer, as of November 30, a total of 7,188 million 384 thousand 379 pesos were transferred.

The study stated that if one seeks to serve the entire potential population of Insabi, that is, those who do not have social security, the cost would be 27 thousand 004.68 million pesos, 4.6 times more than the resources allocated in the FSB.

In 2018, the main conditions treated were 94,400 cases of HIV AIDS; 10,293 cases of neonatal intensive care and 7,400 of breast cancer.

Regarding the issue, Irma Terán Villalobos, deputy of the Social Encounter Party (PES), commented to La Razón that “all laws are perfectible and in the same way the implementation of the budget and funds must be followed up to guarantee that in each Budget of Expenditures of the Federation, the health system obtains the necessary budget ”.

He also stated that there are areas of opportunity in the centralized financing scheme through collaboration agreements for the federative entities that are sent through branches 33 and 12.

Health and vaccine fund. One decision that generated criticism was to allocate part of the Health Fund for the acquisition of the coronavirus vaccine.

On October 27, the Budget Commission of the Chamber of Deputies approved by majority to dispose of 33 billion pesos from the Insabi Health Fund, by reforming article 77 bis, sections XIX and XXIX of the General Health Law.

In this regard, the senator from Morena Antares Vázquez Alatorre assured that resources were not compromised for people with illnesses such as HIV or others contemplated within the 66 diseases of catastrophic expenses.

“The resources are guaranteed. It is a trust (…) that this year had 110 billion, by April next year it will have 33 thousand. In other words, there are still many millions in that fund, “he told this newspaper.

The legislator pointed out that they have dialogued with groups of people with HIV and other illnesses, which did not have the information on the fund.

“Could it be that the pandemic is a catastrophic expense or not? It seems to us that it is, and that the vaccine is an imperative for the country. This is going to be guaranteed as a free human right to health for all ”, he pointed out.

Until the third week of December, Mexico made an advance payment of 160 million dollars for the acquisition of the vaccine through the international mechanism Covax. While it also purchased 34 million vaccines from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, although the cost has not been disclosed.

The pandemic, the greatest challenge. Three months after its start of operations, Insabi faced another challenge: the Covid-19 pandemic.

The institute was in charge of coordinating the hiring of medical, nursing and other workers, as well as the purchase of supplies to correct the deficit of the National Health System.

Senator Vázquez Alatorre pointed out that the Secretary of National Defense enabled 17 hospitals that had been left in black work for the attention to health services and the Covid epidemic.

Given the shortcomings of the Health system, through Insabi, 5,219 mechanical ventilators were purchased for critically ill patients with a federal investment of more than 4 billion pesos for the 32 states.

Among other measures, 18,886 health workers were hired for 30 states in the country, exclusively for Covid-19 care. However, the percentage of workers in this situation who were basified is unknown.