Financing Delivery of Healthcare Services Article

Financing Delivery of Healthcare Services - Article Example The current public and private sources of funds for health care financing There are three major sources of healthcare financing for healthcare delivery services in Mexico. While some methods of financing covers the bulk of the financing burden, there are others which caters for only a small percentage of the country’s population, owing to the inaccessibility and unaffordable nature of such methods. The three methods of financing healthcare in Mexico include: General government Government plays a vital role in the financing of healthcare services in Mexico. The contribution of the general government to healthcare financing in this country ranges from 44 to 48% of the annual healthcare budget. In the years 2005, governments contribution to healthcare financing in Mexico was rated at 45.5% of the total healthcare spending, while the same was rated at 48% in the year 2009 (OECD, 2011). The government offers financing through the Ministry of Health, which is responsible for ensurin g that the public health institutions are financed and supplied accordingly, to ensure continuous provision of health services, especially to the rural poor and the people in the informal sector. Private Social Security Insurance The country has established a system of formal social security institutions that offer health insurance for the formally employed, which is financed through a tripartite contribution by the employer, the employee and the government (Cassels, 2005). This way, the social security insurance ensures that the formally employed as well as their families are offered health services, catered for by the tripartite contribution. For the year 2009, private social security insurance catered for 48% of the healthcare financing in Mexico (OECD, 2011). Out-of-pocket The country has a category of people who are not wholesomely covered by either the government or the private insurance financing services, and thus has to depend on their pockets to pay for the healthcare serv ices (Garman, Johnson & Royer, 2011). These are especially the category of people who have enlisted the services of private physicians. The current methods of acquiring money for health care services, research, and training There are various methods that are applied in the acquisition of money for healthcare services, research and training in Mexico. Some of these methods include household contributions through community. Angel financing is one of the methods of obtaining money especially for healthcare services provision, where the angel financiers offer their financing of healthcare in the form of medical loans (Frenk, 2006). Such loans are offered to individuals who are salaried, yet are not able to obtain other forms of financing for their healthcare needs, considering that it is a financing method that does not require any collateral provision to qualify for the loans, while also helping the beneficiaries to avoid their credit cards being burdened with loan charges and loan int erests (Johnson& Stoskopf, 2010). Government-to-Non-governmental Organization collaboration is yet another method that is applied in Mexico to acquire money for healthcare services, research and training. The Mexican government partners with the existing Non-governmental organizations that operate in the country, to provide the necessary funding for