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This influence of the economy has marked major challenges in the capacity for consumption and increasingly valuable health habits.
In order to be valuable, brands have established important consumer guidelines, such as those that have to do with understanding the market.
The challenges that exist in inflation, at least in health, define trends in consumption of pharmacy and beware.
In the middle of the inflation Habits have been defined before which the consumer is not willing to give in, coming up with key tasks in the market that help build activities such as Health.
The market is faced with a stage key where consumption has established increasingly valuable main tasks based on innovation in pharma, as warned by Fernando LledoManaging Director of bupa Mexico.
The manager’s ruling is clear and helps us understand what is coming in the retail market, where one element is key and that is to understand the importance of developing better health habits for the consumer.
Merca2.0 – What health habits, considering their cost, is the consumer not willing to give up in the midst of inflation and which ones?
Fernando Lledo – Since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the health sector in Mexico has received a major shock that has resulted in various changes in public, private, and individual spending on health. In Mexico, the consumer’s priority is not to allocate their spending to prevention and health, but to other items such as food, housing and services. For example, in terms of money spent on private health, private insurance represents only 12.5% of the investment by citizens, while 87.5% are out-of-pocket expenses.
Regarding the above, the average expense per person increased by 40 percent, with three thousand 299 pesos in 2020. Mexicans do not seek medical attention until it is strictly necessary; In 2020, an increase in specialized care was observed, reaching 57.9 percent, while preventive care fell from 7.8 percent to 2.9 percent compared to 2013. Likewise, the monetary expenditure of households, destined to laboratory and ambulance services increased by 14.5 percent, while hospital services increased by 4.4 percent.
It is important to highlight that, although citizens have been forced to invest more in their health, many are still inclined to look for closer and cheaper services to achieve the greatest possible savings over reputation: having affiliation (28.6 percent) , proximity to a health service (24.7 percent) and low cost (9.1 percent) stand out as the main reasons for choosing the place where the population was attended for a health need, while 7.1 percent considered that it was not. had another option and another 4.2 percent because they serve you quickly. It may seem logical, but in the long run these reasons for spending in an emergency are not the most convenient option, that is, they spend more in the long run, added to stress and worry.
Another way to look for savings is to avoid consulting a doctor and opt for self-medication; It is estimated that from 2016 to 2021 more than 80 percent of the population resorts to this practice, that is, they use medications on their own initiative without medical indication or prescription, avoiding the cost of a consultation. However, we know that paying a professional cannot really be avoided, rather it can worsen the situation to the point of requiring much more specialized and expensive care.
Now, speaking of accessibility: approximately 27.6 percent of the population does not have access to health services of any kind, so they must pay for any search for help in the health sector, and only 2.07 percent have access to services private. This means not only that a large part of citizens do not invest in their health, but that more than half do not even have the option of choosing a public or private service.
From the aforementioned data we can see that health, from a preventive point of view, has not been predominant in Mexico. The ailments are treated and, as far as possible, even going to doctors of any specialty has been avoided. Fortunately, among all the negative that the pandemic brought us, we can rescue that there is now a greater interest in health care and in changing lifestyle and eating habits.
We have noticed that there is increasing confidence in remote consultations, both medical and psychological, and care has become more efficient. People who really require it will be channeled to a health center or doctor’s office, where they will be checked according to each condition or situation. This would seem little, but the last two years have allowed us to see what happens when too many people go to hospitals or clinics at the same time.
I think we should raise awareness just about this. If we start with prevention, by having adequate insurance, a medical service that we have identified, access to remote consultations, pharmacies and hospitals, in times of urgency everything will be much easier.
We must bet on a greater offer in health care, from check-ups to reviews and high-quality studies, for greater accessibility and clear and differentiated coverage, according to needs, age range, among other factors. If we manage to work in this way, it will be, in the long run, much less expensive to care for people’s health, we will reduce waiting times and out-of-pocket expenses. There are elements that are beyond our control, but the resources that we do have, we must use strategically and responsibly.
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