On May 7, 2019, the Cero Desabasto collective was born for the organization of patients, relatives of patients, doctors, organizations, academics and authorities to achieve effective access to medicines and medical supplies, in order to guarantee the right to health. Today, two years later, we continue to receive messages like this:
Will there be anyone who supports me to obtain them? Since the price is very high and today I just couldn’t take my chemotherapy, I am in stage 3 of breast cancer.
The like this:
We were returned home for a week practically every day. Seven times they brought us home because there was no chemotherapy drug when we arrived. (…) After that, the general director of our hospital (Hospital Infantil Federico Gómez) called me at his office and told me that there was a problem: there was no medicine anywhere and they couldn’t get it. I said, “No, well, I buy it.” He says: “The problem is that you won’t find it, that is, even if you look for it and look for it, you won’t find it.”
Health is not only a social equalizer, it is also an engine for development and, above all, health is a right. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure their protection for all people. However, it is not an easy task and to be successful it is necessary the participation of all sectors in the construction of a better health system.
Today our health system is insufficient because more than thirty million Mexican men and women are not affiliated with any public or private health institution (INEGI 2020). It is inequitable and regressive, since the distribution of resources (human and infrastructure) are extremely uneven and public spending on health favors those who have the most; so much so that in a beneficiary of the IMSS-Bienestar (commonly inhabitants of municipalities with high marginalization) only 1,081 pesos are invested per year, while in one of PEMEX, IMSS, and INSABI, 13 thousand, 4 thousand 600 and 2,600 pesos respectively (CIEP, 2020). And, finally, it leaves many people out because it also has very serious problems of access to services, which have worsened in recent years.
Large hospitals and the best doctors are useless if we do not guarantee effective access to medicines and health supplies. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of prescriptions actually not filled tripled. In 2020, 17 million prescriptions were not effectively filled to IMSS and ISSSTE beneficiaries, and the same happens in one of every five prescriptions issued to INSABI beneficiaries. It is not surprising that between 2019 and 2020 the number of complaints to the National Human Rights Commission increased by 56% due to the omission of the authority to supply medicines or medical supplies (Colectivo Cero Desabasto 2020).
We observe the same problem with vaccines, which have been considered the greatest public health success and where Mexico is considered an example worldwide. However, since before the pandemic, strong reductions in the number of doses applied have been observed, an example of this is the decrease between 2019 and 2020 in tuberculosis vaccines (BCG), as well as tetanus vaccines (TD and TDP ) and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) – falls of 92%, 81% and 73%, respectively (Health Transparency Report 2019-2020).
It is indisputable that if our health is compromised, tranquility, well-being and development are at risk. In essence, health is essential for life to be. COVID-19 has shown that our health system is lacking and lacking a lot.
We have to prioritize health over any other agenda, however important it may be. We have to put people’s rights at the forefront.
At Nosotrxs we are convinced that an equitable health system, that is, one that guarantees the right to health for all, is a fundamental step for well-being, for democracy and for life to be; building it is everyone’s job.
Not you, not me, not them: Us.
#YoSoyAnimal
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