[Editorial] Mexico: celebrating universal health coverage

Earlier this year, Mexico reached a truly immense landmark in its pioneering journey of health reform: achieving universal health coverage (UHC) for its 100 million citizens. This remarkable feat has been realised in less than a decade, and is detailed in a Lancet Health Policy paper published online on Aug 16?an update on The Lancet's 2006 Series on Mexico's early experiences of health reform.

Central to Mexico's progress is an ideological shift: health insurance is no longer seen as an employment benefit, but a right of citizenship. The outcome? 52 million previously uninsured Mexicans now have state-protected health cover via the public insurance system and instrument of Mexico's health reform, Seguro Popular.

It would be naive to assume that achieving UHC is the final destination in Mexico's journey of health reform. Despite many crucial new changes in the way Mexico organises its health services?such as the investment in disease prevention through public health programmes (the ban on tobacco use in public places being a good example), and encouraging signs of access to the latest drugs in clinical medicine (such as the availability of trastuzumab for breast cancer treatment)?large challenges lie ahead. The threat of a rise in the burden of non-communicable diseases looms large.

There are also important lessons for other low-income and middle-income countries who share Mexico's quest for UHC, notably the positioning of health reform within a legal framework to secure protection from future political interference. And, crucially, Mexico has showed how UHC, as well as being ethically the right thing to do, is the smart thing to do. Health reform, done properly, boosts economic development.

UHC in other regions will be explored further in a themed issue of The Lancet on Sept 8. And let us not forget Mexico's northern neighbour, where President Barack Obama is seeking to drive through the most radical reforms in the history of US health care. But for now, let us celebrate success, and hope for a sustained Mexican wave of UHC worldwide.

Source: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)61342-7/fulltext?rss=yes

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