A free health care system such as those in Canada and Europe will be a reality in Mexico by the end of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term as president.

The president-elect promised free and universal health care by 2024 while speaking at a rally in Mérida, Yucatán, yesterday.

“We want the right to health to be guaranteed in Mexico. By the end of [my term in office] it will have a health system like that of Canada, England, the Nordic countries; we are going to have quality free health service for all the people of Mexico,” he said.

López Obrador explained that eliminating corruption in the health care system will make the goal achievable.

He said federal and state governments spend 100 billion pesos (US $5.3 billion) every year on medicine. “If that money was managed with honesty, it would be enough to deliver free medicine to everyone.”

“What happens instead? They steal the money for medicine, that’s why there are no medicines in the health centers, that’s why there are shortages. The politicians, it turns out, sell the medicines but that is going to end.”

Source: Milenio (sp)