22/05/2026
*IMSS Bienestar or Regular IMSS are they the same?*
This post to help clarify some of the confusion surrounding the new healthcare system announced by the Mexican government called IMSS-Bienestar.
First of all, it is important to explain what IMSS-Bienestar is, but to do that, I also need to give some context about how healthcare works in Mexico.
Healthcare in Mexico has been considered a constitutional right since 1983. This means that Mexican citizens and legal residents in Mexico have the right to access public healthcare services.
In practical terms, this means people can receive care through public healthcare institutions operated by the government, such as hospitals and clinics managed by the State Health Department (Secretaría de Salud), including hospitals like Hospital O’Horán in Yucatán.
With that context, the Mexican government introduced IMSS-Bienestar.
So, what is the difference between IMSS-Bienestar and the State Health Department services that already existed?
In reality, the main difference is administrative. IMSS-Bienestar is now federally managed, while many of these healthcare services were previously managed at the state level.
This means that people who are not enrolled in any formal social healthcare system can now access IMSS-Bienestar services through participating government hospitals and clinics, such as the new Hospital O’Horán.
At the moment, registration is mainly intended for people who do not currently have any type of social healthcare coverage, such as:
• Regular IMSS
• ISSSTE
• PEMEX healthcare
• Previous systems such as Seguro Popular or INSABI
Some Mexican seniors over a certain age may also qualify depending on the current registration rules and government programs.
Now, an important clarification:
What is the difference between IMSS-Bienestar and the regular IMSS system?
Regular IMSS — the system many people already know — is healthcare coverage that people receive through formal employment in Mexico or through voluntary enrollment programs such as Seguro para la Familia, which many foreigners living in Mexico currently use.
Even though both systems contain the name “IMSS,” IMSS-Bienestar and regular IMSS are not the same system and are not currently being merged.
For example:
If you currently have regular IMSS coverage and attend your assigned family clinic (UMF), where you have access to family medicine, prescriptions, specialists, and follow-up care, IMSS-Bienestar does not replace that service.
If you want to continue receiving services through the traditional IMSS system, you still need to maintain and pay for your regular IMSS or Seguro para la Familia coverage.
Can someone choose to stop paying regular IMSS and instead use IMSS-Bienestar?
Yes, potentially — but you generally cannot actively use both systems at the same time as interchangeable services.
IMSS-Bienestar is primarily designed as a federal public healthcare program intended to guarantee universal access to healthcare services, especially for people without other healthcare coverage.
Also we want to emphasize something very important:
This system was mainly created for some of the most vulnerable populations in Mexico — people living in extreme poverty who may never have had access to formal employment, retirement benefits, or traditional social healthcare systems such as regular IMSS.
That is one of the main reasons why programs like IMSS-Bienestar exist.
For this reason, at Health Itinerary, we still encourage people — if it is financially possible and accessible for them — to maintain traditional healthcare coverage options such as regular IMSS through Seguro para la Familia or private insurance alternatives whenever possible.
This also means that people without regular IMSS may now receive emergency or urgent care at certain hospitals that were previously more associated with traditional IMSS services.
However, it is important to understand that, as of today, these systems still operate separately.
Just like ISSSTE, regular IMSS, and IMSS-Bienestar are all government healthcare systems, they continue to function independently from one another.
I hope this helps clarify some of the confusion surrounding the topic. I completely understand why the names can be confusing, but as of today, these healthcare systems have not been unified into a single system.
For more information about IMSS, and healthcare options in Mexico, you can also visit HealthItinerary.mx
