Although the Institute of Welfare Health (Insabi) enabled a telephone number to receive citizen complaints about treatment fees at health institutions, no one responds to calls.
Animal Político dialed 10 times to 800-767-85 -27, a number provided by the Holder of the Insabi, Juan Antonio Ferrer, but the call was directed to a switch that provides five options for: membership requirements, information about modules, guidance and services, complaints and suggestions, and general questions.
Read: Do you or do you not charge for Insabi health services? Health says yes, AMLO says otherwise
By checking option 4, corresponding to complaints and suggestions you hear two ringtones and then cut it without there being another option to file the complaint. When you try option 5 on general questions, the call enters, but immediately cuts off.
DENUNCIA ☎️ 800 76 78 527
All persons in the country WITHOUT SOCIAL SECURITY have the right to receive free public health services, medicines and other associated supplies.
? Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 9 to 18 hrs. ➡️ https://t.co/iiHt6xsJPh pic.twitter.com/1Sp2avBGy5
— Institute of Welfare Health (@INSABI_Mexico) January 10, 2020
Recently, authorities said there will be reimbursements for patients who paid higher recovery fees at the General Hospital in Mexico City since Popular Insurance disappeared.
The increase in these recovery fees, which can only be charged for third-tier or very high-specialty care, coincided with the extinction of Popular Insurance, the previous program that reduced out-of-pocket medical expenses, and the arrival of Insabi, which began operations from day one of 2020 with the promise of giving free care and medicines to people without social security.
This morning, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reiterated that Mexicans cannot be charged fees to receive services in hospitals of the Institute of Health for Welfare, since it is something that is established in the Constitution and asserted that the lack of medical services are due to corruption and not for lack of budget.
Read: Goodbye People’s Insurance, from January 1, the Institute of Health for Welfare will operate
He indicated the existence of people who do business and refuse to have medicines and medical care delivered free of charge.
“It’s an ideological issue, it’s a mentality situation, how come you’re not going to charge yourself? That’s populism, paternalism, how medical care isn’t going to get claimed and medicines are going to be delivered for free, there are a lot of people who don’t agree with this, but we have to respect them,” he said.
“We have to respect (those ideologies), but we have to understand that we are making a transformation and that the right to health and education, not a privilege, was going to be guaranteed,” he said.
AMLO wants to showcase those responsible for supply and services
López Obrador reported that his government plans to open an information center that exposes who are responsible for ensuring medicines, doctors and infrastructure in the sector.
“We are thinking of knowing each other, giving more information, about who is responsible for missing medicines, to see who he is, so that anywhere in the country he knows who is responsible, even giving his phone to be informed,” he said.
“The same is, who is responsible for the lack of shortage of doctors, for the health facilities to work well.”
The information center, he said, will also be made known to those responsible for the corruption of workers and those who take charge of the allegations and allegations of abuse and non-compliance in the gratuitousness of health care and medicines.
What we do in Animal Político requires professional journalists, teamwork, dialogue with readers and something very important: independence. You can help us keep going. Be part of the team.
Subscribe to Animal Politician, receive benefits and support free journalism.#YoSoyAnimal
