One in three healthcare workers lack labor rights in Mexico

One in three healthcare workers in Mexico lives without labor rights. Medical staff, nurses, technicians, and administrative personnel work under informal schemes, without social security, benefits, or stability. Meanwhile, President Claudia Sheinbaum repeats that the system already operates "like in Denmark."

Despite the speeches about social justice, the reality is that the system is sustained by precarious labor. Temporary contracts, irregular payments, and extended workdays are the daily reality for those who sustain hospitals, clinics, and care centers. There is no labor dignity, there is institutionalized exploitation.

Hospitals, without guarantees

The IMSS-Bienestar model, presented as the emblem of the 4T, has multiplied jobs without a base, without rights, and without a future. Thousands of workers are hired on a fee basis, without the right to vacations, bonuses, or pensions.

In many cases, they don't even have access to the same health system they work in. Treating patients without their own medical coverage is now a normalized irony.

If they get sick, there is no disability or support: only dismissal or replacement. The height of it: many have been renewing contracts every three months for years. Without seniority, without stability, without respect.

The double standard of humanism

While from the National Palace a "humanist" health model is boasted, the labor base that sustains it remains completely forgotten. Sheinbaum talks about justice, but her policies only perpetuate inherited precariousness.

There is not enough budget to care for everyone, but there are resources for campaigns, tours, propaganda, and clientelism. Health personnel doesn't ask for privileges, just minimum conditions. But in the logic of the 4T, real needs are hidden. If they protest, the response is repression or indifference.

A system collapsed from within

This informality not only harms the worker, it also harms the patient. Fatigue, turnover, talent drain, and demotivation directly impact the quality of service. One can't speak of quality health when doctors don't have contracts, nor do nurses have the right to get sick.

Meanwhile, the 4T celebrates imaginary advances, the promised transformation didn't arrive. Only a new disguise of the old precariousness arrived.
 

The health system, far from consolidating, remains fragile, sustained by heroes without rights. Because in Mexico, public health is not built with promises... it's built with labor dignity. And that, clearly doesn't matter to this government.