Mexico Achieves Universal Health Coverage

From Banderas News in Puerto Vallarta, courtesy of a facebook friend:

Despite periods of economic downturns and crisis, Mexico recently achieved a significant milestone – enrolling 52.6 million previously uninsured Mexicans in public medical insurance programs and thereby achieving universal health coverage in less than a decade.

This effort began in 2003 and occurred in a country of approximately 100 million people.

A paper published online August 16th in The Lancet by a group of public health officials - including Harvard School of Public Health Dean, Julio Frenk, Director of the Harvard Global Equity Initiative, Felicia Knaul, and current Minister of Health of Mexico Salomón Chertorivski - notes that while significant progress has been made, challenges remain as the country seeks to minimize disparities in healthcare quality and ensure that there is effective access to health care services in rural areas that are traditionally underserved.

More here.

I don't really have much of a comment because I think this news makes its own statement. But just in case you don't get it, here's the point: Mexico, supposedly the "backward" nation of Latin America, just did something that the United States seems to be utterly incapable of doing. Not even Obamacare attains coverage that could be called universal. But Mexico did exactly that, universal coverage.

Tell me once again how America is the greatest country in the world. Tell me so I can shove Mexico in your face. It's no wonder immigration is down: why the fuck would you come here when you can continue to live in the nation where you were born, a nation that is rapidly turning out to be more civilized than the so-called "land of opportunity"? Maybe we gringos should start thinking about going South. At least we can see a doctor there.

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