• April 27, 2024

Governments often forget that they are the "little ones" refomas and administrative measures more than the constitutional reforms that make the "big" differences. Measures that do not have much spectacularity and that barely have coverage in the media, but that are what change the quality of life of people.

Most of the citizens almost nothing matters the great reformist project of the Pact for mexico that placed the country on the international front pages. Few know the reforms, unless they understand them, a still smaller proportion considers them important. The structural reforms and the promises they offer are intangible for the citizen.

Those that are not intangible are the policies that affect the population in their day-to-day life: if the issuing of licenses works better, if a pension can be charged without major formalities, if the beneficiary of a housing loan does not have to give him money to the coyote to lighten the wait, if the garbage is collected.

A notable case is that of Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), which during this sexennium has been distinguished by introducing innovations that do make a difference: they do not cost the treasury and benefit the user.

The progress

Under the ownership of González Anaya a reform initiative was presented to standardize the concepts that determine the base salary of contribution with those of the ISR and thus end the practice of sub-porting salaries to the IMSS to reduce the payment of worker-employer quotas, but increase the cost of their payroll when they inform the SAT to pay less taxes. The initiative that would save three billion pesos to the IMSS was approved in the Chamber of Deputies, but blocked in the Senate.

The Institute did not sit idly by the legislative failure nor its director resorted to the easy file that: "They do not let me do things." That proposal was followed by others that do not have to go through Congress, nor expose themselves to the lobbying of the de facto powers. On the contrary, it has concentrated on policies that are in their hands and that are having a favorable impact on the institution and the beneficiary.

In the recent report of the IMSS It realizes some reforms not in the making but have already paid off. The first was the reduction in the use of reserves from more than 24 thousand to less than 12 billion pesos. The institution can not claim victory in terms of its financial consolidation, but lower the deficit in 50% in 20 months of management is no small thing.

To this were added other measures such as systems to improve the supply of medicines that resulted in savings of one thousand 500 million pesos and, above all, consolidation in the purchase of medicines (we are talking about one of the three largest buyers of the Mexican government) that generated a saving of three thousand 700 million pesos, in addition to promoting competition and benefiting the national pharmaceutical industry.

The foundations

Both measures are important for the finances of the Institute, but it could be said that the beneficiaries do not perceive the immediate benefits in their welfare. That is why policies aimed at users of the medical services .

Maybe we already forgot, but in 2009 the IMSS won the prize for the most useless process: a woman who had to administer twice a month a controlled medication to her son, had to do a procedure that went through eight hands between stamps, authorizations and copies. The waiting time he had to face was from four to fifteen days, time that his son had to wait to receive the dose.

To face this problem, the Resupply Recipe Program . A measure that does not have to go through Congress and that while helping to financially rehabilitate the IMSS improves the service. It is a simple reform that substantially changes the lives of all those who require regular medication for chronic conditions. An important percentage of the almost 500 thousand daily consultations of the IMSS are for the sole purpose of refilling a recipe.

For this you have to schedule an appointment, go to consultation and waste time to obtain the medicine . Now, instead of having to go to an appointment, patients with these conditions will get a prescription that covers the drugs for three months.

This small measure is of great impact in terms of the release of offices, the time of doctors and patients who sometimes lost a day of work just to get their prescription. It is estimated that the program will release seven million consultations per year.

To close the circle is also underway the program of administrative simplification that will allow a good percentage of the 12 million contacts to be made online.

Without a doubt the IMSS It has a lot to move forward and can not be proud of being a world class institution, but this is moving to Mexico, and in the right direction. Less headlines and less spectacular, but more effective in management seems to be the brand of IMSS . Hopefully and other institutions adopt it.

Find me on Twitter: @amparocasar and to the mail:amparo.casar@cide.edu

Video Medicine: The Progress "A Drug Called Tradition" (lyric video) (April 2024).