ANNALS OF HEALTH LAW
THE HEALTH POLICY AND LAW REVIEW OF
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO SCHOOL OF LAW
Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy
VOLUME 22, ISSUE 3 SUMMER EDITION 2013
CONTENTS
Foreword ........................................................................................................................... i
ARTICLES
The Road to Universal Health Coverage in Mexico: From Charity to Social
Protection in Health
Octavio Gómez-Dantés, Julio Frenk & Ignacio Ibarra .................................................. 373
In this paper, the authors analyze the evolution of the Mexican legal framework that
culminated in the creation of the System of Social Protection in Health (SSPH) and its
operative branch, Popular Health Insurance or Seguro Popular. This insurance scheme
extended health care coverage with financial protection to all Mexicans citizens in 2012.
First, we discuss the nature of social rights, including the right to health care. The
authors then describe the evolution of the contents of the legal instruments (the
Constitution, the social security laws and the General Health Law) that supported the
transition in Mexico from health care as the subject of charity to health care as a labor
right and then as a social or citizen right. Finally, the authors discuss how the creation
of the SSPH established the regulatory and financial conditions to guarantee the exercise
of the right to the protection of health. There are three lessons of the evolution of the
framework that gave legal support to the expansion of health coverage in Mexico. First,
the introduction of the right to the protection of health into the Mexican Constitution in
1983 identified UHC as an achievable vision. Second, the establishment of the SSPH
placed access to comprehensive health care outside of the public assistance realm,
guaranteeing its justiciability and establishing the rules to assure its financial
sustainability. Finally, the recent Mexican reform illustrates the potential to expand
coverage with financial protection to reach the poor and non-salaried workers by
decoupling access to social protection in health from salaried employment and
transforming it into a right of citizenship.
Duty to Warn of the Risk of HIV/AIDS Infection in Africa: An Appropriate Legal
Response?
Dr. Obiajulu Nnamuchi & Dr. Remigius N. Nwabueze ....................................................... 386
The central concern of this paper is to determine whether a physician who competently
diagnosed an African female patient of HIV/AIDS infection has a legal obligation to
disclose the test result to the patient’s husband or partner. The paper argues that
although most western jurisdictions have settled in favor of disclosure, this is not a
