title: Addressing inequity in health and health care in Mexico.
abstract: Despite the fact that life expectancy at birth in Mexico has improved from forty-two years in 1940 to seventy-three in 2000, major inequalities persist in health and access to health care. The Mexican health care system has evolved into a series of disjointed subsystems that are incapable of delivering universal health insurance. Without greatly restructuring the way health care is financed, performance with respect to equity will remain poor. This paper presents the inequities of the system and describes how the current system contributes to the status quo rather than redressing the situation. After tracing the origins of the present system, we discuss policy initiatives for moving toward universal health insurance.
authors.affiliation: Mexican Ministry of Health.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barraza-Lloréns
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bertozzi
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: González-Pier
authors.forename: Juan Pablo
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005380:Financing, Government / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D011057:Politics; D017149:Private Sector; D017150:Public Sector; D012943:Social Security; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D019472:Universal Health Insurance