Bolstering Universal Health Care in Mexico
Mauricio Torres-Martinez spent his pasantía—a year of mandatory social service following graduation from medical school in Mexico—in Ciénega de González, a rural, mountain community in the state of Nuevo León.
Alone in the clinic, Torres-Martinez performed all duties himself: patient care, ordering supplies, education and outreach, and even clinic upkeep. He often kept the clinic open after hours.
“When I envision the future of health in my country, I see public institutions that embrace a moral imperative to secure health equity.”
Because of Mexico’s universal health care mandate, Torres-Martinez explains, patients never paid for services or medications. However, available drugs were limited, particularly diabetes and blood pressure medications, and patients often went without effective treatments. Requirements for patients to attend a certain number of visits before receiving a prescription meant that some patients never received critical medications. Unexpected out-of-pocket expenses were often so high that patients chose to go without recommended care.
To learn more about health care systems, Torres-Martinez joined The Lancet Commission on Cancer and Health Systems, an international collaborative effort to assess how health systems impact the cancer continuum of care. He helped to develop a scoping review and mapped patients’ journeys through the health system, information that will serve as a foundation for actionable policy.
At the Bloomberg School, Torres-Martinez plans to concentrate on health systems and policy. Eventually, he hopes to use this knowledge to improve Mexico’s health care system.
“We need to level the playing field to guarantee that everyone has good enough health to chase their dreams,” he says.
