During a tour of the Tambacounda region on April 30, Aly Fall, technical advisor in charge of media and public relations at the Agence nationale de la couverture maladie universelle (ANCMU), highlighted the strong momentum of universal health coverage (CMU) in the region.
Speaking at a workshop, the technical advisor in charge of media and public relations for the Agence nationale de la couverture maladie universelle (ANCMU) said that the coverage and penetration rates are over 40.09% and 93.03% respectively in the Tambacounda region.
“These encouraging results make an active contribution to the national rate, which is 53%. The contribution of mutual health insurers to this national rate is 23%.”
However, the agency’s technical advisor acknowledges the slow pace of CMU implementation. These delays are linked to social factors, he explained. In Senegal,” he points out, “health insurance is still a voluntary scheme. If we move to a compulsory scheme tomorrow, we can boost the figures,” he says.
For the moment,” he says, “the Universal Health Coverage Agency is trying to move forward, by implementing reforms such as the creation of “strong, professionalized departmental mutual insurance companies”.
We’ve installed 19 nationwide, and we’re moving on to the other departments. The idea is to move towards 46 strong and professional departmental mutuals, in which we can have as many people as possible to help the Senegalese have access to quality healthcare at lower cost.
Asked about the debt owed to health care facilities, Mr. Fall explained that it amounts to just over 10 billion CFA francs, and reassured us that the Head of State has instructed his government to grant an extension of 10 billion CFA francs to the ANCMU in order to pay off this debt.
