The figure that sounds good, but smells old
Secretary Ariadna Montiel Reyes announces with great fanfare more than 14.5 million free medical consultations at home. The Casa por Casa Salud program, he says, travels through neighborhoods and towns to serve older adults and people with disabilities. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?
“So far we have carried out more than 14.5 million home consultations, personalized and free for beneficiaries,” declared Montiel Reyes.
This is where the journalistic exercise begins: looking for what they don’t say. Fourteen and a half million is a round number, too round. How many unique beneficiaries are behind that figure? Or are multiple visits counted as separate queries?
Historical memory does not forgive
Mexican social programs have a peculiar history with statistics. Let’s remember when other governments inflated vaccination or food delivery numbers. The tactic is clear: an impressive number for headlines, fuzzy details for those who ask.
Montiel mentions that they detected 4,683 emergencies due to blood pressure and glucose in six months. That means approximately 26 emergencies a day nationwide. Is it a lot or a little? Without prior epidemiological context, it is impossible to know.
The really worrying thing: 20 thousand workers traveling the country daily according to the statement. Do the math: 14.5 million divided by 20 thousand workers would be… too efficient for any health system, even the Nordic ones.
The secretary insists that the program “strengthens pensions” and helps in “early detection.” But strengthening pensions with medical visits sounds like a creative justification. What does strengthen are the budget sheets just before midterm elections.
The true diagnosis here is not medical, but political: another social program turned into a propaganda weapon. People need real attention, not inflated numbers for press releases.
Meanwhile, older adults wait – hopefully – for the promised second visit.
