Economics: Social deprivation climbs as income and healthcare access fall in latest survey
The latest installment of the bi-annual National Household Income and Expenditure Survey (Enigh) based on a survey from the autumn of 2020, and the accompanying multidimensional reading of poverty from Coneval are especially significant as they depict not only the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic crisis, but also the inertial effect of a pre-pandemic flatlining of the Mexican economy dating back to the beginning of 2019. It also allows us to discern some specific effects over the past two years of the policies of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration.
The studies show not only a striking erosion of employment-related and household income in general, but also rising rates of poverty and troubling social deprivation readings. One especially telling result in that regard was that the share of the population lacking access to public medical services almost doubled in two years to 28.2%, a reflection not only of the specific demands of the pandemic, but also, above all, because of the current administration’s decision to dismantle the country’s non contributory health insurance program (Seguro Popular) on which up to 43.5% of the population had come to depend. Rising poverty also meant that medical care grew further out of reach for millions of people. Household expenditure figures tell another part of that story, with the public having to channel more of its funds into essentials as its their healthcare expenditures rose 40.5% on average.
The difficult economic moment Mexican families are experiencing, along with all the adverse health and social ramifications of the pandemic, serve as new hurdles to any economic recovery.
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