According to the 2008 Evaluation Report on Social Development Policy in Mexico, elaborated by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), various health indicators have improved since 1992, even for the 20 percent poorest population in Mexico. In good measure, this is thanks to the fact that the coverage of basic services has increased since then.
Regarding life expectancy at birth, nationwide it increased from 71.7 to 74.8 years from 1992 to 2006.
In the item of food and nutrition, the CONEVAL Report reports that nationwide child malnutrition measured through the prevalence of low weight and low size in children under the age of 5 in 2006, registered levels of 5.0 and 12.5 respectively, a trend that has been dropping since 1988. However, malnutrition levels are still high within the indigenous population.
The prevalence of low size in children under the age of 5 in the indigenous population was 33.2 percent in 2006, compared with 48.1 in 1988.
One of the challenges for social policy is to bring down mother mortality, for in spite it has dropped in the last 14 years in Mexico, we are far from accomplishing the Millennium Goal set for the year 2015, which is 22 deaths out of 100 thousand births, for in 2004 there were 62 deaths, taking into account that with currently available technology over 90 percent of these deaths are preventable.
Although 93.2 percent of deliveries were tended to by medical staff in the country in 2006, there are important differences per entity: in Chiapas and Guerrero only 68.0 and 78.4 percent deliveries were tended to by medical staff, respectively. Both entities, together with Durango, have the highest mother mortality rates in the country: 90.1 and 128.0, respectively.
Another social policy challenge is to improve the quality of public goods and services offered to the population, for in 2006 Mexico had 1.4 physicians in contact with the patient per every one thousand inhabitants, while Cuba, Uruguay and Argentina have 6.2, 3.9 and 3.2, respectively.
Additionally, geographic dispersion is a factor that makes access to health services difficult, for while in the D.F. the maximum rate is 3.1, in Chiapas and Estado de Mexico it is 0.8, when the World Health Organization (WHO) sets a minimum acceptable threshold of 1.0 physicians per every one thousand inhabitants.
On the other hand, Mexico’s nutritional reality also shows a relatively new phenomenon, but which already affects public health and will worsen in the following years: obesity. This disease in general affects the entire population and is responsible for the high levels of diabetes and heart disease that affect the population.
In 1988 the prevalence of obesity in women between the age of 20 and 49 was 9.5 percent; by 2006 it grew to 32.4 percent. Likewise, in 1988 the prevalence of overweight in women between the age of 20 and 49 was 25 percent; by 2006 this percentage grew to 36.9 percent.
With the purpose of improving public policy in matters of health, the CONEVAL issued the following recommendations on its Evaluation Report on Social Development Policy:
| 1. |
Develop strategies in the monitoring of the quality of services in the country. |
| 2. |
Guarantee universal healthcare for pregnant women during delivery and puerpery, and for children under one year of age to reduce mother and child mortality, especially in the entities with higher mortality indexes. |
| 3. |
Focalize in areas of high malnutrition, especially indigenous, effective medium and long term strategies to improve the state of malnutrition and strengthen the availability of high quality food when faced by food price increase. |
| 4. |
Develop an effective policy to contain, reduce and prevent obesity in the country, with special attention to infancy. |
An advancement by the Federal Government in matters of social policy is supporting the population in lack of formal social security (ISSTE, IMSS). Given this fact, it has designed a set of social programs to help the population in lack of social security by institutions such as the IMSS or the ISSSTE.
An example of this are the Oportunidades and Popular Insurance (Seguro Popular) programs that provide or strengthen aid in healthcare or in cash, to the poor population and lacking formal protection.
The objective of having universal health coverage within a few years, improving the integration of formal and informal health services, is a policy that is moving in the right direction.
The full version and abstract of the 2008 Evaluation Report on Social Development Policy in Mexico can be found at Reports and publications section |