Baja California Sur Governor Víctor Manuel Castro Cosío met Thursday with President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City to evaluate the IMSS-Bienestar health program, which provides free medical care to residents who lack social security coverage.
The working session brought together governors from all states enrolled in the federal program. Discussions focused on hospital infrastructure, medical staffing, medicine supply chains, and strategies to expand coverage for uninsured populations across Mexico.
67 Medical Units Serve All Five BCS Municipalities
After the meeting, Castro Cosío confirmed that IMSS-Bienestar now operates 67 medical units across all five municipalities in Baja California Sur. The network includes 58 primary health centers and five general hospitals located in San José del Cabo, Cabo San Lucas, Ciudad Constitución, Loreto, and Santa Rosalía.
The state also counts the Juan María de Salvatierra hospital in La Paz as its sole tertiary care facility under the program. That hospital handles the most complex cases for patients across the peninsula.
Medicine Supply Improving but Gaps Remain
The governor pointed to gradual improvements in medicine supply and a rise in the number of prescriptions filled at IMSS-Bienestar facilities. Still, he acknowledged that gaps in coverage persist and that not all BCS residents are fully served by the system.
The IMSS-Bienestar program, known formally as Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social-Bienestar, is Mexico’s effort to federalize public health services for the roughly 50 million people nationwide who do not have employer-based social security. In Baja California Sur, an estimated 250,000 residents fall into that category.
The transition in BCS has been underway since 2022, when federal and state authorities signed an agreement to fold the state’s public health infrastructure into the federal system. Since then, 460 health workers in the state have received permanent positions, and 940 state employees were transferred to the federal IMSS-Bienestar payroll.
What This Means for BCS Health Care
For uninsured residents in Los Cabos, La Paz, and elsewhere in the state, the program is designed to guarantee free consultations, hospitalizations, surgeries, and medications at public facilities. The program does not cover those already enrolled in IMSS through an employer or in ISSSTE, the federal workers’ health system.
Thursday’s national evaluation session was the latest in a series of review meetings that began under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and have continued under Sheinbaum’s administration. The original source for this report is the Baja California Sur state government website, bcs.gob.mx.