“Miami is one of the most diverse cities [in the country] and having a great university in the heart of a global city like Miami offers all kinds of opportunities,” says Frenk.
Frenk is a fourth-generation physician with a remarkable career in health policy. One of his notable accomplishments is establishing Seguro Popular—a comprehensive national health insurance program—while serving as the minister of health for Mexico from 2000 to 2006.
When he assumed the position, half of Mexico’s population of roughly 100 million people was uninsured. “It was a terrible situation because people had to face this horrible choice between watching a loved one suffer or spending everything they have to pay for health care,” says Frenk.
The policy had to be approved by Mexico’s dominant political parties: the National Action Party (PAN), the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
“I always say that good policy has three pillars: technical, ethical and political,” says Frenk.
The technical pillar was diagnosing the problem through research, then showing that the solution was feasible and affordable.
