Pensions for the elderly and disabled. School scholarships. Free health care. They’re all part of a new constitutional reform in Mexico.
"It's a great reform, historic," President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said during a press conference Saturdayannouncing that the reform had officially been adopted into the constitution with broad approval across the country. "It elevates these rights to the constitutional level. It's a step toward the welfare state."
In addition to guaranteeing the right for everyone 68 and older to receive pensions, the reform also dramatically expands free healthcare to those not previously enrolled in the country’s social security system — about half the population. And it provides scholarships for needy students from preschool through college, among other benefits.
López Obrador said Mexican lawmakers are currently working to guarantee federal funding for the expanded programs.
