Morocco’s Compulsory Health Insurance Rollout: Progress Update
A progress update on Morocco’s AMO rollout, from expanded coverage and state-funded contributions to rising pressure on the CNSS.
Fouzi Lekjaa, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy and Finance in charge of the budget, reviewed the results of compulsory health insurance during a meeting of the Finance, Planning and Economic Development Committee at the House of Councillors.
During a meeting to assess progress on the compulsory health insurance project, Fouzi Lekjaa said that around 5 million professionals, self-employed workers and non-salaried workers had benefited from health coverage as of April 10, 2023. Of these beneficiaries, 1.9 million are principal insured members and 3 million are dependents.
Lekjaa also noted that nearly 640,000 reimbursement claims ont été soumises par ces catégories à la Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale (CNSS) au 10 avril 2023. De plus, les bénéficiaires du Régime d’Assistance Médical (Ramed) qui étaient incapables de payer des cotisations sont désormais éligibles pour bénéficier de l’Assurance Médicale Obligatoire (AMO) depuis le 1er décembre 2022. Le number of beneficiaries reached 9.6 million, including dependents. The state budget covered this category’s contributions to the CNSS, for a total amount of 9.5 billion dirhams.
The minister explained that AMO beneficiaries receive the same package of care, including free medicines and hospitalization in public health facilities, with the government covering the remaining 30% of billed services. As for the private sector, Lekjaa revealed that 680,000 reimbursement claims were submitted between December 1, 2022 and April 10, 2023, including 480,000 reimbursement claims, 40,000 requests for coverage of costly and chronic diseases, and 160,000 requests for care in public hospitals.
Lekjaa also reported that 1.4 million files have not yet been transferred by public hospitals, while 1,229,978 beneficiaries had already received services from these hospitals as of April 20, 2023, including more than 1,048,092 beneficiaries already registered with AMO and 163,713 beneficiaries in the process of registration. Regarding billed services, their amount exceeded 1.9 billion dirhams, including 857 million dirhams for services provided, 434 million dirhams in fixed transfers based on the number of beneficiaries, and 620 million dirhams for services provided by public hospitals. Lekjaa also explained that the average cost per file is nearly 1,263 dirhams for those who were previously unable to pay contributions, compared with 1,438 dirhams for self-employed workers and 1,200 dirhams for employees.
125 files submitted every minute to the CNSS
The number of files processed daily by the CNSS has surged since the rollout of AMO. The latest figures shared by CNSS Director General Hassan Boubrik show that 60,600 files are submitted each day in April, compared with 22,000 in December 2020. The number of AMO beneficiaries also rose sharply to reach 23.2 million people in April 2023, compared with 7.8 million in December 2020. For non-salaried workers, registration rates had reached 81% for those subject to the single professional contribution (260,662 registrations), 75% for individual businesses (319,776 registrations), and 69% for merchants and artisans who keep accounts (27,751 registrations) by mid-April.