The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, announced this Monday that her government will begin the national registry of beneficiaries of the health system in January 2026, as part of the process to unify the services of the IMSS, ISSSTE and IMSS-Bienestar by 2027.
“In January of next year we are going to start, well, I just said it yesterday that with so much information, perhaps it was not relevant: in January of next year we are going to start the registration, the registration, every Mexican man and woman will have a registration in the National Health System,” the president said yesterday.
According to the head of the federal Executive, the purpose of this single registry is to allow medical records to be shared between the three institutions, so that medical care stops depending on the affiliation regime.
“Everyone will have a credential, if they are from the ISSSTE, if they are from the IMSS, if they are from the IMSS-Bienestar, according to what they tell us or what each person says, to see if their medical history can be shared between the three institutions; because the objective is to generate a scheme starting in 2027,” he explained.
Financial gaps
The goal announced by Sheinbaum would face different financial obstacles, specialists considered.
For Axel Eduardo González, Data Coordinator in Mexico ¿Qué Vamos?, the success of the plan will depend on greater public investment in health, budget homologation between institutions and the definition of a sustainable financing scheme.
In his opinion, to achieve full operation in 2027 “will depend on how robust health spending is in the coming fiscal years.”
“To really talk about a substantive improvement, it has to be supported by a significant increase in what we are spending in terms of public health,” said the specialist.
Furthermore, the analyst stressed that one of the biggest challenges will be the standardization of spending between institutions, since there are strong disparities in the resources allocated per person.
“The per capita spending in institutions like Pemex is very different compared to the IMSS or the ISSSTE, and even lower in IMSS-Bienestar. To guarantee similar services, an equitable budgetary exercise is needed, regardless of the origin of affiliation,” he explained.
This inequality, he added, not only impacts the quality of care, but also access to medications, infrastructure and medical personnel.
Jorge Cano, coordinator of Public Expenditure and Accountability of México Evalúa, considered the intention to integrate the institutions into a single health system positive, but stressed that this measure would also require unifying the basic care and medication tables, as well as ensuring equality in the quality of the service, regardless of the institution to which the person belongs.
Fees
Regarding the financing of the unified system, the expert raised the need to rethink the current scheme based on worker-employer quotas, which excludes the informal population.
“It would have to move towards a model financed by general taxes, as is already happening with IMSS-Bienestar. That would reduce the burden on formal workers and could encourage the formalization of employment,” he indicated.
However, he acknowledged that in the short term this is complex and that, in the meantime, the budget of IMSS-Wellbeing and the centers of the Ministry of Health must be increased to equalize the conditions with the social security institutions.
Malaquías López Cervantes, an academic at the UNAM Faculty of Medicine and former director general of Health Planning and Development, warned that institutional unification will not solve the structural problems of the system by itself, such as the shortage of medicines, the gap between rural and urban areas or the marginalization of indigenous communities.
Furthermore, he stated that the ideal would be a universal public financing scheme, where each institution receives an equal per capita budget, without depending on labor or employer quotas.
Journalist from San Luis Potosí denounces aggression
During the morning press conference of the federal Executive this Monday, October 6, Potosí journalist Anahí Torres reported to President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo that she had been the victim of an attack on October 2, after the publication of reports about an alleged espionage network in San Luis Potosí, in which Governor Ricardo Gallardo Cardona and the Secretary of Government, Guadalupe Torres, were named. Sanchez.
“Four men with long weapons intercepted me outside my office. They made direct threats towards me and two other journalists: Omar Niño and Carlos Domínguez,” said Torres, who stated that the attacks occurred after the articles “visibly bothered” state authorities.
The journalist recalled that on May 24, she personally delivered a letter to the then president-elect to denounce the harassment and attacks on freedom of expression in San Luis Potosí. This new attack, he stressed, occurs in a context of intimidation and censorship towards the local press.
According to data from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), 10 journalists have been murdered since Sheinbaum Pardo assumed the presidency in October 2024.
Mexico ranks 124 out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2025 World Press Freedom Index, with a score of 45.55.
