The Danish Health System And The Health System Of The Fourth Transformation Government In Mexico: Similarities And Differences

Abstract

The Mexican government, known as the Fourth Transformation (4T), has proposed to transform the country’s healthcare institutions in order to create a healthcare system “like one of the best in the world, like the Nordic countries, like Denmark, which has a good welfare state.” To this end, after the COVID-19 pandemic, Mexico has resumed the initial plan of free medical care and medicines for the population without social security through a new centralized model of medical care through IMSS-Bienestar. This paper analyzes the similarities and differences between the Danish and Mexican healthcare systems. Although there are similarities between the two systems, structural, social and cultural differences are unlikely to allow Mexico to achieve the standards of the Danish healthcare system by the end of the current administration. The countries with the best welfare states have developed through long and complex historical processes and in Mexico, the 4T government is beginning the construction of a new welfare state contrary to the neoliberal policies that dominated public life for many decades. The successes, problems, and failures of all the models in the world teach that there is no ideal model, so they must be analyzed and adapted to the reality of each country. Mexico has its reality and challenges, so the construction of a counter-hegemonic health system has begun in the current administration, and its consolidation as a good, free and universal health system will be the responsibility of the following governments.