Morocco has announced that it has launched its plan to extend social coverage to 9 million beneficiaries, ultimately intended to cover 22 million people currently without health insurance. Farmers, artisans, traders, independent professionals and their families will be the first to be included in the compulsory health insurance scheme (AMO) in 2021 and 2022, according to the official press release issued after a ceremony to launch the operation in the presence of His Majesty King Mohammed VI. The AMO will then extend to workers in other sectors “with a view to the effective generalization of social protection to all citizens,” said the Minister of the Economy, Mohamed Benchaaboun, quoted in the press release.
Three framework agreements signed
With a view to optimum coverage, three framework conditions have been signed. The first framework agreement, which will impact more than 800,000 members, focused on the generalization of basic compulsory health insurance for the benefit of traders, craftsmen, professionals and independent providers subject to the single professional contribution regime, to the one of the autoentrepreneur or the accounting system. The second framework agreement, involving around 500,000 members, focused on the generalization of compulsory basic health insurance for the benefit of artisans and crafts professionals. As for the third framework agreement, it affects some 1.6 million members and concerns the generalization of compulsory basic health insurance for the benefit of farmers. “The implementation of this large-scale societal project constitutes a starting point for the achievement of the aspirations of His Majesty the King in favor of all components of Moroccan society in terms of responding to the challenge of the generalization of social protection », Underlined the Minister. And to add, quoted by the Moroccan press agency MAP: “It represents a lever for the integration of the informal sector into the economic fabric so as to guarantee the protection of the working class and its rights, as well as a turning point. decisive on the path to achieving balanced development and social and spatial justice under the leadership of His Majesty the King. “