Democratization of health care in Mexico Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Democratization of health care in Mexico - Essay Example Democratization of health care in Mexico Health challenges affect people of all groups although there are some significant differences in disease or risk factor rates among groups, which can be described as health disparities in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, survival and burden of health conditions that exist between specific population groups. These population groups are characterized by age, gender, ethnicity, income, social class, sexual orientation, disability and also geographical location. One of the most important influences on health status and risk is socioeconomic status (SES). This paper looks chronic illnesses on the high income and wealthy class of Mexicans, reviewing the current trends and outlining possible solutions. Background National health accounts developed in Mexico in the mid 1990’s showed that almost more than half of the health expenditure was out of what the citizens earned because approximately fifty percent of the population had no health insurance. Through applying these methods f rom the world health report 2000 to a series of national income and expenditure surveys, researchers showed that these high levels of spending from the savings were exposing Mexican to financially hard situations (Alcantara, April 2013). Approximately 4 million Mexican families in 2000 incurred impoverishing health expenditures. Mexico thus did not do well on the comparative analysis of fair financing internationally. These outcomes led policy-makers from the Department of Health to focus on health system financing and triggered analysis of the whole nation that indicated a high concentration of health expenditures in uninsured and poor households. However this did not fully solve the issues of health the country was yet to face. â€Å"According to 2010 census, Mexico’s population is now approximately 112, 336, 538, 000 inhabitants of which estimated 57, 500, 000 are women and 54,855,231 are men. Chronic illnesses are major causes of death in the overall population including heart disease, diabetes mellitus, malignant tumors, accidents, and renal failure. Some of the risk factors exposing citizens to these are smoking, sedentary lifestyle and obesity (Alcantara, 2013). In 2010, WHO indicates that high percentage of the population was overweight approximating to 68.3%.Among these obese cases, cholesterolemia, and high blood pressure were reported. In 2011, heart problems caused approximately 105 million deaths, ischemia caused 61.000 deaths followed by diabetes mellitus with 80,000 deaths, and 5,700 deaths were from suicide. In 2011, 12,960 smear tests were positive for TB. The report also indicates that there were 4,147 cases of AIDS in males and 1,116 in females in 2006. The prevalence of cancer in the population varies by gender. In men the most common types of cancer are trachea and lungs while the most common in women are breast cancer, cervical cancer and liver cancer. The most common predisposing factors are smoking, alcohol intake, environmental pollution and occupational exposure. In 2010, 15.6% of the population smoked including men and women† (Alcantara, April 2013). The state health report also point out that in 2010, 13.2% of kindergarten students and22.6% of third grade students in New Mexico were obese. In comparison, 18% of 6 to 11 year olds nationwide were obese. The average weight for kindergarten students in the obese category was about 20 pounds heavier than for those in the healthy weight category. The average weig