Health system like the Danish

By. Jose C. Serrano

Zoe Alejandro Robledo Aburto, was born in Tuxtla Gutiérez, Chiapas 44 years ago. He has a degree in Political Science from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM). He currently works as general director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS); He is part of the work team close to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

In a recent media interview, Zoé Robledo expressed that having a healthcare system like Denmark It consists of it being one hundred percent public, with a centralized organization and administration, a single care model and a preventive approach. That is what exists in that Nordic country and it is the proposal of the Health Plan for people without social security in Mexico, through the IMSS-Wellness.

Robledo Aburto explained that the IMSS-Benestar will fully operate in at least 20 states of the Republic, where 80 percent of people without access to social security are concentrated, around 52 million individuals.

A little over a year after starting this work, Zoé Robledo says she has a clear picture of the challenge involved in transforming medical care in communities and towns that have basic community hospitals that, at most, provide consultations with general practitioners.

President Lopez Obradorsince December 2022 in his morning conference at the National Palace he has said: “We are going to have a public health system like the one in Denmark where medical care and medicines are free. In Denmark they have policies that were completely unattainable in Mexico.". Zoé Robledo, in his dissertation, endorses the promise that his boss makes with such substance.

In a portentous, metaphorical leap from Mexico City to Copenhagen, 9,503 kilometers away, it is feasible to corroborate that the Danish health system is a model of public centers and hospitals. Its financing is mainly from the payment of taxes. 11 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is allocated exclusively to health spending.

Dentistry is free care for citizens up to 18 years of age, as well as physiotherapy and podiatry. This also includes people who are temporarily in the country. People who are not registered as residents, undocumented immigrants or non-covered non-EU visitors can access the use of health services, but assuming their cost.

Doctors practice their profession within health centers, which are not centralized, in such a way that doctors are autonomous and are themselves in charge of the organization, administration, and management of the centers.

Each health center, being independent, can choose what type of computerized medical record it uses, as long as it allows interconnection with other hospitals and the data analysis system.

These systems also work with the electronic prescription, which allows the patient, after the consultation, to go to the pharmacy of their choice and, presenting their health card, the medicine is filled.

Denmark is the country that occupies the first position of the nations with the highest quality of life. The strike rate is minimal, the purchasing power of its citizens is quite high, and crime rates are very low.

As far as is known, there are no slum areas with high rates of extreme poverty in Denmark. At the opposite pole, Mexico, although this is mortifying, is characterized by having them in abundance.

An example to illustrate what has been said: residents of towns located in the Sierra Gorda de Jacala, Hidalgo, are forced to walk towards their communities on the narrow edge of calicantos built on paths or along cliffs to divert water from the Amajac River to their crops.

The locals lack roads that connect the localities due to the rugged geography of the soil between the indigenous communities of Quetzalapa and Vado Hondo.

Rosario Guerreroa teacher at a rural school in Quetzalapa, acknowledges that "the distance between the two demarcations of the municipality of Jacala is three kilometers, but there is no road or highway that connects them, only very rugged paths on the hills."

Here is an awkward question: What will López Obrador and Robledo Aburto do to implement a health system like the Danish one in localities with so many deficiencies, similar to those of Jacala?

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