MOROCCO – The Kingdom of Morocco has announced that it has enrolled 32 million beneficiaries in health insurance in line with an integrated and inclusive social protection program in the country.
In November 2021, the Moroccan government pledged to introduce medical coverage to three million people as part of the country’s new regulations on pension and the Compulsory Health Insurance scheme.
The social protection program seeks to attract new investments in health infrastructure, improve the business climate, and accelerate economic recovery to restructure the supply of health care and provide training to human capital.
Moroccan Head of Government H.E. Mr. Aziz Akhannouch said: “The number of Moroccans working in the unregulated economy and free trades, who have access to social benefits including health coverage went from 7.8 million to 23.2 million in 2022.”
He commented on the increase in the number of individuals working in the unregulated economy who are registered under the National Social Security Fund (CNSS) during a monthly session at the House of Councillors, the upper house of the Parliament of Morocco.
Mr. Akhannouch observed that the number of citizens who gained access to health coverage (AMO) stood at 9.4 million in the past year, stating that the government has implemented patient-centred care access to care aimed at reducing health inequities
“The increase in the number of citizens with access to healthcare echoes the rise in the number of fillings the CNSS received for healthcare-related reimbursements,” the Head of Government highlighted.
He explained that the number of fillings from individuals in the unregulated economy sector exceeded 640,000 in 2022 while noting that 53,400 of the total fillings were issued last December.
“In 2022, the National Social Security Fund opened 47 additional local agencies, launched 45 mobile agencies, and created 8,000 communication centers to register new workers,” he said.
Billionaire Akhannouch pointed out that CNSS has opened new agencies to facilitate access to its services as well as to boost access to healthcare coverage, adding that the Fund built a network of 2,000 points for workers to file for healthcare-related reimbursement files.
Meanwhile, the Moroccan government has plans underway to increase the number of health professionals to more than 90,000 by 2025 from the current 68,000.
The country aims to the quota of 24 health professionals for every 10,000 inhabitants by the same deadline of 2025, and 45 health professionals for every 10,000 inhabitants by 2030.
In July 2022, Head of Government of the Kingdom of Morocco signed a framework agreement on the implementation of a program aimed at boosting the number of health professionals by 2030.
“Reaching this goal requires doubling the number of medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry graduates, as well as tripling the number of nursing and health technology graduates by 2025,” Akhannouch added.
He confirmed that under the framework agreement, the government will open three faculties of medicine and pharmacy as well as three university hospitals in Errachidia, Beni Mellal, and Guelmim.
In addition, Morocco reduced the duration of medical training from seven to six years, in a bid to meet the objectives of the kingdom’s New Development Model (NDM) and the national project to extend health insurance to every Moroccan.
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