A new act in the theater of public health
The scenario changed this Friday. In the pages of the Official Gazette, the federal government premiered its great work: the decree that creates the Universal Health Service. It is not a new law, but a mandatory mechanism for public institutions to stop acting like islands.
The premise is simple, but ambitious: weave a network with everything that already exists. The IMSS, the ISSSTE, the Pemex hospitals, the National Institutes of Health… all under the same leadership, that of the Ministry of Health.
The decree defines it as “a mandatory mechanism of coordination and operational integration” between federal public institutions and the states that join.
How does this network work?
Imagine that you are a beneficiary of the IMSS, but the closest hospital is one of the ISSSTE. With this system, you could be treated there. Then, your institution (the IMSS) would pay the ISSSTE for the service provided. It is an exchange with invoice.
“The institution to which the person belongs… must compensate the expenses corresponding to the institution that grants it”, establishes the text.
The promise is better use of operating rooms, equipment and beds that today sometimes sit idle on one side while there are lines on another. Sounds logical, right? The trick has always been in bureaucratic coordination.
The key will be a unique credential. No more confusion about where it is your turn. You register with your CURP, get a credential with a QR code and that’s it. That QR will say which institution you are affiliated with, but it will open the doors to the entire network.
It’s a script we’ve heard before: integrate to optimize. The public is waiting to see if this time the actors behind the curtain – the different bureaucracies – will really follow the same script. The real impact will be measured not in decrees, but in whether that eternal line in front of the health center finally moves.
