In Mexico, a doctor can save a life… and at the same time be left completely alone when they need help the most, especially legal help. Today, practicing in the private sector not only requires knowledge and experience. It involves freedom, assets, professional freedom, and, above all, the right to adequate technical defense. The question is no longer whether the doctor has insurance. The question is: what will that insurance do to actually defend and support them? And even so… without support. The doctor, foreseeing an adverse scenario, hired additional defense. That decision is what prevented them from being completely alone in terms of defense, but not financially. But the situation was already urgent, everything had been said. Evasiveness and refusals from both insurance companies pushed them to mortgage their house to get by on their own, even complying with everything the system requires, even paying for more than one policy, even following the rules, the contracted support was not guaranteed. The problem doesn't end with the insurance companies: within the private sector, doctors have pointed out practices that generate increasing discomfort: hospitals that condition professional practice on contracting certain insurance with certain companies, companies that operate as an entry requirement, and unclear relationships between institutions and providers. Meanwhile, the doctor pays the premiums and also the consequences, affecting their life, their reputation, and, as in this case, their assets. They pay to work. They pay to “protect themselves”. They pay for peace of mind that never arrives when they need it most. A silence that is beginning to break. The accumulation of testimonies is beginning to draw an uncomfortable pattern: doctors facing processes alone, active policies that do not translate into real defense, and decisions that are made… far from the doctor. Recently, we also saw a case in Baja California where a pediatrician was sentenced to lose her professional license, apparently also under the defense of another insurance company. Another more recent viral case is that of a plastic surgeon from Toluca and his medical team, imprisoned under the defense of another insurance company. The question no one wants to answer. Today, the medical guild is beginning to question something that was once taken for granted. More and more doctors are beginning to share what was once said in a low voice: they pay for years, comply with all requirements, and follow every protocol. Within this system, the demand is harsh: without a policy, there are no operating rooms or access to provide medical services. The case that recently set off the alarms: Saltillo, Coahuila, where an anesthesiologist exposed a situation that has generated concern throughout the medical guild. During his legal process, two of the insurance companies he had contracted (Afirme and Medical Legal Center) disassociated themselves from his defense. A civil liability policy ranges between $4,000 and $18,000 annually, if we average $8,000, we can calculate the size of the business for insurance companies: 2.8 billion pesos annually. In these hospitals, this is not a recommendation, it is an imposition. It's that, at the critical moment, that insurance does not respond as expected or uses the fine print. It involves complying with increasingly rigid conditions: contracting a professional medical liability insurance policy. Currently, the country has more than 350,000 active doctors and between 3,000 and 4,000 private hospitals. And in some cases, you can't even choose: they tell you which insurance company you must contract with. All under a promise: “you will be protected”. But that promise, for some, has become something very different. Because when a lawsuit arrives, it's not just one case at stake, it's everything. Two active, paid, and valid policies. But when they face a lawsuit or complaint, the support simply does not appear or it appears to say “for what reason are we not going to respond”. It's not that they don't have insurance.
