Increasing the Responsiveness of Health Services in Mexico's Seguro Popular: Three Policy Proposals for Voice and Power

—One of the most relevant market signals that most public health services lack is a drop in revenues. This signal is key because it can help you detect quality problems in your services and enables you to respond accordingly. Our analysis seeks to understand how Mexican public health services can substitute this market signal. To achieve this, we use the accountability framework developed in the World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for the Poor. Three policy proposals focused on improving voice and power, building on previous efforts developed by Mexico's Ministry of Health and other organizations, are proposed for increasing the responsiveness of Seguro Popular: (1) a countrywide health ranking of states, (2) a national alert system for maternal and infant deaths, and (3) a community-based monitoring system based on the use of report cards.