Mexican health service chief Germán Martínez quits over spending cuts

The head of Mexico’s Social Security Institute ( IMSS ) has stepped down, citing budget cuts that he said would harm health services for the poor, in one of the first major resignations in the administration of leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador .

Germán Martínez Cázares

, head of the institute known as IMSS , issued his resignation in a letter on the government’s website on Tuesday. In it, he took a swipe at the Finance Ministry , blaming it for pressure on the IMSS to make savings and cut staff.

“ Excessive savings and controls in health spending are inhumane,” Martínez said in the letter, saying the country’s poor were worst hit .

The Finance Ministry under López Obrador, who took office in December, has made major spending cuts in the government’s first budget, trying to balance the president’s promises to help the poor with commitments to run a 1% primary budget surplus.

AMLO’s austerity plan could save up to MXN$132 billion

López Obrador told reporters he regretted Martinez’s decision but that a replacement for him would be found . He urged IMSS and the Finance Ministry to reach agreement going forward.

IMSS runs hospitals as well as pensions and social services and is one of the country’s biggest government spending dependencies.

Mexican doctors improvise to save lives

Martínez is a former chairman of the center-right National Action Party

( PAN ), a longstanding adversary of López Obrador.

Martínez’s decision to switch sides and join the campaign of the former Mexico City mayor had helped to broaden López Obrador’s base of support in the run-up to his landslide election win last July.

A spokesman for the finance ministry said it had no immediate comment about Martinez’s letter.

Private insurance elimination: MXN$5 billion in savings

sg