Half of the formal workers in the country have not had adequate surveillance of their health, which has impacted their quality of life, in addition to multiplying the demand for health services and affecting the operations of companies.
This was revealed by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) after analyzing the data on the impact on the country’s health system, after the Covid-19 pandemic, which showed that 10 million workers presented some risk or vulnerability condition before this virus.
“This is a public health problem for working people, when they have an accident or their physical condition deteriorates due to chronic-degenerative conditions that are not prevented or treated in a timely manner, in addition to the negative effects that this produces in the population, it affects the productivity and business operations. This scenario becomes more critical in situations such as the Covid-19 pandemic”, indicated the IMSS.
Other transcendental data was that there were 4.6 million disabilities as infections by the pandemic; which represented a loss of 44 million working days, a situation that was reflected in the productivity of the companies.
The hidden costs of presenteeism (which is when the worker comes to the company sick or when he or she is not productive for multiple reasons, and to a lesser degree absenteeism, temporary incapacity, and prolonged incapacity), can be much greater for companies than what is derived by medical and pharmaceutical care; it is estimated that this may be 75 percent.
According to 2019 records, the IMSS generated 2.5 million days of Temporary Incapacity for Work due to 107,764 cases; while 1,342 cases of musculoskeletal disorders in the back generated more than 50,000 days of Temporary Incapacity for Work.
In that same year, the most common reasons for which a worker requested a disability to work were: respiratory, musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases, dislocations, sprains and strains. Fractures accounted for the largest expense in terms of subsidies for temporary incapacity for work.
It should be noted that, in a tripartite manner, the federal government, together with the business sector, will present a program that allows for the health of the 21 million workers affiliated with the IMSS; because this is intended to serve the first step to clean up the operations of companies and will have a favorable impact on the country’s economy.