The Social Security will have a contingency reserve for a deficit of 18 thousand million pesos
Angeles Cruz Martinez
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, July 4, 2022, p. 17
Starting this year, the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) will use its Operating Reserve for Contingencies and Financing, with which it will solve the estimated deficit of almost 18 billion pesos. The measure – which was also applied in the government of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa until exhausted – will continue during the following years and until 2035, when the agency anticipates that these resources will end.
In the Report on the financial and actuarial situation 2021-2022, the IMSS warns that as of 2036 it will face a deficit situation. In addition to the use of reserves, which in 2022 amount to 150 billion pesos, it proposes different options to solve it.
Among others, it resumes the old project to increase the worker-employer contributions in the Sickness and Maternity Insurance (SEM), which has historically registered a deficit, as well as in the contributions of the Medical Expenses Insurance for Pensioners.
Among the aspects that are the cause of financial risk, the report points out the economic burden represented by chronic degenerative diseases. Only to treat diabetes, high blood pressure and chronic kidney failure, 94 thousand 547 million pesos are invested, that is, one out of every four pesos of SEM income. Almost half is absorbed by diabetes mellitus.
These conditions, he points out, cause a high demand for services in outpatient consultations, specialties, emergencies and hospitalization, which may worsen if the increasing trend in incidence and prevalence rates continues.
In fact, for more than a decade, diabetes and high blood pressure have been the main causes of medical expenses for the IMSS. In 2021, 3.1 million people with diabetes were treated, 4.8 million with high blood pressure and 66 thousand with chronic kidney failure. In total, 7.9 million, representing 13.3 percent of the population assigned to family medicine units.
Other factors that affect finances are the decrees and programs that expand the coverage of services with federal financing. The resources obtained in this way are less than what the IMSS invests in the attention of the beneficiaries. He mentions the case of Optional Insurance for 7.3 million students. In 2021, the institute received 4 thousand 259 million pesos, but allocated 6 thousand 795, mostly in hospitalization.
In the Youth Building the Future program, there is a record of 437,995 apprentices who generated a medical expense of 566 million pesos, while the contribution through the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare was 294 million.
An additional risk for the finances of IMSS is the decrease in income from fees due to the shorter period of formal employment of affiliates, which could be the consequence of an adverse economic environment.
