And you think your health insurance company is bad? Just be happy you don’t live in Mexico. There it takes two physicians, four bureaucrats, and quadruplicate forms to get life-saving medications in that country, and as Cecilia Velazquez, winner of this year’s red tape “prize” in Mexico has brought to our attention, Mexico’s healthcare system is a bureaucratic nightmare that is just unacceptable–to the point of winning said contest in her home country for the long waiting times, multiple hoops, and redundancies built into the system.

What is interesting is that Mexico both knows that its government is so bureaucratic that it can have a “red tape” contest, have 20,000 entrants, and always find a compelling and interesting winner who has struggled against the inadequacies of the government for years. What is MORE interesting than that is that the government is willing to publicly acknowledge and admit what that failing is and then try to change it. Could you imagine either of these things happening in the United States? I, for one, cannot.

Let’s hope that this acknowledgement is the beginning of health reform for Mexico. No person–parent or patient–should have to go through this much red tape to secure access to life-saving medications.

Summer Johnson, PhD