AND
he convention Ebrard-Telethon (12/5/20) for attend
the covid-19 epidemic did not have the best results (Gustavo Leal F.: Ebrard and the private health sector
, the day, 9/19/20). And despite the dark origins – supposedly linked to the Legionaries of Christ and Marcial Maciel – in addition to the marathon charitable
Upon capturing the (not very transparent) funds promoted by Televisa during neoliberalism, President López Obrador signed another agreement (8/12/21) with the same Teletón Foundation. He only remembered it in the morning conference on 5/9/22.
Even the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recommended to the Mexican government set up
a clear distinction between the private nature of the Telethon campaigns and the obligations that the State must undertake
for the rehabilitation of people with disabilities ( Process5/10/14).
Faced with the limitations of public institutions, AMLO announced in August 2021 that It is the first time that we are going to make an agreement with a civil organization, because we had decided to deliver everything directly
. It is about using the infrastructure of 24 Telethon Centers with the Support Program for Rehabilitation and Inclusion for the Well-being of 20,000 children and young people with disabilities between zero and 17 years of age. Thus, the parents will register with the Welfare Secretariat and, after a diagnosis that will establish the rehabilitation plan, with credentials and vouchers, they will attend appointments at the Telethon facilities.
Fernando Landeros, president of the Foundation, described it as historical
and promised to offer services of high quality
. With the background of the Ebrard 2020 agreement, it is worth asking if they will indeed be.
It is a fact that there are not enough rehabilitation centers to care for 6 million people with disabilities (Inegi, 2021). Although on the agreement presented by Landeros in the morning conference on August 12, 2021, it should be established that the benefits package offered is made up of first and second level services. Not highly specialized.
The diagnostic services: physical medicine and rehabilitation, comprehensive clinic, psychoanalysis and social integration offered are basically first level outpatient consultation. In addition to the terms of comprehensive clinic and social integration
they are ambiguous. And, subject to knowing the costs of these items in the Landeros agreement, it is useful to refer to the unit costs by level of medical care in the IMSS in force as of 2021 ( DOF, 12/28/20) where these interventions are between 1,324 pesos and 1,162 pesos per consultation.
With regard to treatment services: physical, occupational, language, pulmonary therapy, oropharyngeal electrostimulation, robotic therapy, botulinum toxin, nursing training and technological assistance, it should be noted that these are routine and basic second-level interventions . Today there are much more avant-garde and effective treatment therapies. It should also be clarified that both the nursing training
as the technological assistance
do not constitute as such a service
. They are integral actions of the medical process. The IMSS tabulators report 1,676 pesos per physical therapy session; 115 pesos for occupational and 206 pesos for pulmonary and language.
Regarding therapeutic follow-up, consultations of different first and second level specialties are basically offered: human communication, nutrition, inclusion clinic, which in the tabulators (IMSS) add up to 1,463 pesos.
Auxiliary diagnostic services: electroneurodiagnosis, uroproctodynamics, respiratory function tests, gait analysis, are basic studies, not expensive. In IMSS tabulators, electroneurodiagnosis: 581 weights and respiratory function tests 206.
Subject to establishing the unit prices of each intervention, the Landeros-agreement does not contemplate large magnetic resonance, tomography, PET and radiointerventional studies –among others–, all of which are essential for an adequate and complete diagnostic analysis in the face of disability .
It is not a bad portfolio of services, especially since it is for those who lack everything. But it is located between the basic and intermediate levels of attention.
So seen the results
of the Ebrard agreement (May 2020), perhaps the President could have better continued to deliver the resources directly before subsidizing for the first time
in the 4T to this kind of quasi Popular Insurance in the delicate task of rehabilitation: I pay you the most basic but I sell it to you as the most essential, although, strictly speaking, it is only essential and is wonderfully placed at good market prices, although be essential. Just like the –fortunately now extinct– Seguro Popular!
* Autonomous Metropolitan University-Xochimilco
