Challenges of Poverty Reduction in Mexico - Example

Research Paper Table of Contents Public health care program is improving health condition in Mexico 3 Challenges of Poverty reduction in Mexico 5 References 10 Public health care program is improving health condition in Mexico Despite the period of economic crisis and downturn, a significant milestone was achieved by Mexico in the public sector. Mexico successfully implemented the 52.6 million worth of the insurance program, in order to achieve universal health coverage within a decade. The effort to implement the program started in the year 2004, in a country of about 100 million people. Since then significant progress has been made in the field of healthcare; however the challenges still remain as the government is seeking to minimize disparities in the healthcare sector to make sure that the people in the rural areas have access towards the healthcare service that initially they did not. The recent healthcare efforts implemented by the Mexican government focus on improving the equity and efficiency of the healthcare system. In the light of these health reforms, there is a rising need of addressing the effectiveness of the healthcare sector and the improvement in the health of the citizens. The healthcare program implemented by the Mexican government to improve the health conditions of its citizen was defined as an ambitious program funded by the Mexican government, by Dean Frenk, the former health minister of a Mexico. The aim of this program was to ensure that even the poorest Mexican have the access towards the range of preventative healthcare services like diabetes screening, vaccinations, etc. It was also ensured by the government that they get appropriate treatment for catastrophic and chronic illness. Healthcare was provided to the Mexicans regardless of their socioeconomic situation and financial protection was provided to the people, in order to help them avoid the choice of choosing between impoverishment and suffering (Puig, Pagán, & Wong, 2012). Research revealed that after the implementation of this program, the health of the children and adults in Mexico was significantly improved and the use of increase in the health service was also recorded. The children under the age of 5 received effective child care and nutritional support. 12 percent less incidence were recorded in overall Mexico (Public Health in Mexico – January Program, 2015). It was recorded that working adults in Mexico ranging from the age of 18 to 50, faced less incidence of difficulty from their daily work activities, as they had the access to the healthcare services whenever they wanted. The beneficiaries who were above the age of 50 reported that they faced 19 percent less difficulty while performing their daily activities and they also spend fewer day at work, when compared to the individuals of the same age group who do not have access towards healthcare. The health expenditure in Mexico is around $770 million in the year 1999 but it has increased to 2000, requiring about 20 percent of the federal budget (Mexico achieves universal health coverage, enrolls 52.6 million people in less than a decade, 2015). A reform was devise and implemented by Mexico providing evidence to the rest of the world that how a middle-income developing country could transform itself in the healthcare sector and achieve the goal of universal health coverage within the span of 10 years. The success of the program can be analyzed from the fact that there were a number of health factors that increased steadily, like the number of females achieving prenatal care, women receiving the screening for cervical cancer and treatment of chronic respiratory infection in children. After the implementation of this program, its effectiveness was evaluated and improving policies were introduced based on the conclusion drawn from those evaluations. This quest of achieving universal healthcare was an important lesson for not only Mexico but also the other countries, irrespective of their high or low income status (Improving the health of the poor in Mexico, 2015). Challenges of Poverty reduction in Mexico The GDP of Mexico is same as Spain, Australia and South Korea but still it’s GDP per capita which 14,000 USD is approximately 3 times lower than the countries mentioned. 4 years ago, the GDP per capita of Mexico was half the amount, considering that things have gotten much better in the recent years. It was at the time when the drug war broke in Mexico that the economic crisis got more serious in the country. It is the poor rating of the country in the fields like education, infrastructure and institution, innovation and market efficiency that reflects the poor rating of the country. The direct consequences of poverty in Mexico can be seen from the fact that about 12 million Mexicans are currently working in the black market, being exploited as they do receive social security of any form. Statistics suggests that about 25 million of the Mexicans are underemployed as they are being less than $14 per day (Poverty in Mexico, Economic CrisisAnd 21st Century Welfare , 2015). (Moreno, 2015) The average salary of the Mexicans living in rural areas is 4 times less than those of living in urban areas explaining the process of emigration from Mexico to US. The free trade agreements and globalization has exposed Mexico to the world, which means that the country will be exposed to more business opportunities. Mexico has also turned out to be the 2nd largest exporter of goods to US but still the rate of poverty in the country thrives on corruption, quasi-institutional and drug war; therefore inequalities is only increasing as the rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer. The urban upper class residing in Mexico has been doing better than ever (Mexico Makes Progress And Faces Challenges In Poverty Reduction Efforts, 2015). It is since 1950’s that the Mexican government is taking measures to reduce poverty by practicing two opposing approaches of spurring economic competitiveness and social spending. However the best approach may not be about competition but about providing balance to the economy. Mexican is considered to be one of the best examples if one wants to study the relationship between poverty and economic cycles. In Mexico, about 40 percent of the population is living below the poverty line and out of this 40 percent 10 percent falls under the line of extreme poverty. In 1950s, the rate of poverty in Mexico was as high as 65 percent; however it went down to 25 percent in 1960s. It was in 1980s, when economic crisis hit Mexico that the people living under the line of poverty drastically increased. As the things got better and the economy started to recover; then the drug cartels and the financial crises took over Mexico. However, the Mexican government started to take measures to limit the impact of this global crisis. During this economic crisis, the Mexican government reacted by providing social assistance programs that were targeted towards the poor. It is said that the reason why the rate of poverty did not increase drastically in Mexico is because of these policies implemented by the government. Likewise the result of decrease in the rate of poverty by 25 percent is attributed to all the social work done in Mexico in the recent years, as this work has recently gotten more efficient. However it is the overemphasis on social work that has limited the development of Mexican economy (Mexico blighted by poverty reduction challenges, 2015). There were some major challenges faced by the government while implementing the poverty reduction production, despite of the fact that the Mexican government was sure that its investment will help in creating desirable number of jobs for the people. Neglecting the rights of the middle class, endemic security issues and rampant crime are some of the unresolved issues that play a crucial role in derailing the eradicating poverty program of the government. Two new factories were inaugurated by President Felipe Calderon, in Central Mexico. These factories started with the investment of $160 million, aims to create 500 new jobs. This new plant was set up by the government to decrease the widespread income inequality in Mexico. The Mexican government seems to be working hard towards achieving their goal of economic recovery, as their priority was to restore the income level and families’ employment in Mexico. The Mexican government does not just aim to enforce economic recovery but it wants that the effects of this recovery are felt in the income of families. This is the reason that the government started taking actions to translate this economic recovery into new jobs, new investments and greater economic growth. The Mexican government is also working with business to convert Mexico into one of the worl’d best sites for investment (Alvarado, 2010). (Overview, 2015) The industrial plants of Grupo Safran belongs to Messier Dowty, a company that specializes in the manufacturing of Snecma Propulsion Systems and landing undercarriage sytems, which are known for producing airplane engines. The president of Mexico said that he views this year as the year of economic recovery and a year when Mexico will achieve bicentennial independence. However, while examining the current conditions of Mexico, it is obvious that the government should needs to take more effective actions in order to eradicate the challenges of class inequalities and crime that impose a serious security threat to the Mexican society. The anti-poverty program implemented by Mexico became so successful in some of the cities that countries around the world started to get inspired by this program. This anti-poverty program introduced by Mexico talked about making human capital a priority to fight poverty. In this program the government put major emphasis on health, education and nutrition and initiated the idea that healthy population leads towards more workers and more workers means more efficiency for the overall economy. This in the long run indicated that the Mexican workers will perform more competitively in international industry. Even though the government succeeds in eradicating the poverty among the poorest portion of the country, there will still be the need of stabilizing the middle class, who suffer from the effects of financial and economic crisis. Over the past decade the disparity found in the between the richest and the average population of people has widened. Another crucial challenged faced by the Mexican government in its way of eradicating poverty is security. At present Mexico is known for its crime rate all across the world than its fight against poverty or its tourism program. This growth in insecurity imposes negative effects on the civilian population of Mexico and it may also prevent or delay the economic development of the country in the long run. This may also be bad for an environment that may attract the attention of foreign investors. References Improving the health of the poor in Mexico. (2015). Retrieved July 9, 2015, from Center of Global Development: http://www.cgdev.org/page/case-9-improving-health-poor-mexico Mexico achieves universal health coverage, enrolls 52.6 million people in less than a decade. (2015). Retrieved July 9, 2015, from Harvard T.H. Chan: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/mexico-universal-health/ Mexico blighted by poverty reduction challenges. (2015). Retrieved jULY 8, 2015, from UPI: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/03/18/Mexico-blighted-by-poverty-reduction-challenges/96531268941480/ Mexico Makes Progress And Faces Challenges In Poverty Reduction Efforts. (2015). Retrieved July 8, 2015, from The World Bank: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20234053~enableDHL:TRUE~menuPK:34467~pagePK:64003015~piPK:64003012~theSitePK:4607,00.html Overview. (2015). Retrieved July 11, 2015, from The World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/mexico/overview Poverty in Mexico, Economic CrisisAnd 21st Century Welfare . (2015). Retrieved July 8, 2015, from Poverties. org: http://www.poverties.org/poverty-in-mexico.html Public Health in Mexico – January Program. (2015). Retrieved July 9, 2015, from http://aimoverseas.com.au/program/health-care-in-mexico-january/ Alvarado, E. (2010). Poverty and Inequality in Mexico after NAFTA: Challenges, Setbacks and Implications. Estudios fronterizos. Moreno, J. C. (2015). NAFTA and Mexico’s Porcelain Wedding. Retrieved July 11, 2015, from World Economic Association: http://www.worldeconomicsassociation.org/files/newsletters/Issue3-6.pdf Puig, A., Pagán, J. A., & Wong, R. (2012). Assessing Quality across Health Care Subsystems in Mexico. Journal of Ambul Care Manage, 123-131. Read More