
By Fatima Masse
Since the beginning of his six-year term, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised us a first-class, free health care system like that of Norway or Denmark. Since then, a series of institutional changes have been made to transform the health sector, which have not had the expected results. Despite this, the president remains firm in his commitment, to the extent that in January of this year he stated that Mexico would end up with a health system better than Denmark's. Could it be?
In Denmark, health services are mainly provided by public centers and hospitals and are financed through tax payments. With the exception of drugs, which have certain co-payments, health services have no direct costs for the inhabitants. Practically the entire population uses this type of services, only 1% of Danes have private insurance that allows them to visit specialists without prior referral.