Mexico's Healthcare System Wins Red Tape Award
And you think your health insurance company is bad? Just be happy you don't live in Mexico. There it takes two physicians, four bureaucrats, and quadruplicate forms to get life-saving medications in that country, and as Cecilia Velazquez, winner of this year's red tape "prize" in Mexico has brought to our attention, Mexico's healthcare system is a bureaucratic nightmare that is just unacceptable--to the point of winning said contest in her home country for the long waiting times, multiple hoops, and redundancies built into the system.
What is interesting is that Mexico both knows that its government is so bureaucratic that it can have a "red tape" contest, have 20,000 entrants, and always find a compelling and interesting winner who has struggled against the inadequacies of the government for years. What is MORE interesting than that is that the government is willing to publicly acknowledge and admit what that failing is and then try to change it. Could you imagine either of these things happening in the United States? I, for one, cannot.
Let's hope that this acknowledgement is the beginning of health reform for Mexico. No person--parent or patient--should have to go through this much red tape to secure access to life-saving medications.
Summer Johnson, PhD
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Well they can illegally enter California and get free care. I can't since I live here and pay taxes, but lucky for them. I can't even get a basic checkup without coughing up roughly $200, which I can't since I have to eat and all those other luxuries. Sorry if my sympathy isn't exactly overwhelming considering the US isn't much better and needs drastic health care reform, but we take care of Mexico's citizens better than our own.
Why is it any surprise or shock that Mexico has a horrible health care system. Every possible aspect of Mexico's government is either corrupt or inept. This is not new. And we all pay for it, probably always will.
- by tina on Mar 4, 2009 at 6:07 AM | link