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After the deputies of the Health, Population and Social Affairs Commission of the National Assembly, the Alliance for the Law on Universal Health Coverage (Cmu) invited Ajspd yesterday to share the evolutions of the said program. But it was also an opportunity for the Director General of the Cmu Agency to launch a strong advocacy for the strengthening and institutionalization of the Cmu bill.
To enable the entire population to benefit from free health initiatives put in place by the government to cover 89% of people not benefiting from the coverage of civil servants and non-state officials, Senegal has decided to rely on mutual health insurance and medical assistance schemes as the Universal Health Cover (Cmu) wanted to fill the gap. Thus, to succeed in the project to reach a 75% coverage rate in 2021, the law on the Cmu is required. What made it possible yesterday for the Alliance in favor of the law on the Cmu under the aegis of the Direction of the Agency of the Universal health coverage, to organize a meeting of sharing and information on the bill generalizing health risk coverage in Senegal developed in liaison with all stakeholders in the sector and the Association of Journalists in Health, Population and Development (Ajspd), to implement the constitutional right to health and at the same time restore equity in access to care. "The vote of the law will be a real social advance for our country," said Dr. Bocar Mamadou Daff, Director General of the Cmu Agency. Before explaining: "It includes important innovations, which will guarantee every Senegalese a minimum package whatever its field of activity". For the latter, a law that guarantees everyone the "right to heal", regardless of "their means", is "a real symbol of progress". In his opening speech, he said that the national accounts of 2013 revealed that households were responsible for 57.8% of national health expenditure, or 237 billion CFA francs in direct payment. A study conducted in the same period showed that in 2011, 38,056 households faced catastrophic health expenditures. This means that more than 40% of their annual resources have been spent on the health costs of at least one of their members. Speaking of the non-management of chronic diseases by the Cmu, Dr. Daff said that "drugs on chronic diseases are very expensive." "But we will take the lead to facilitate the care of patients," he said. Before announcing: "We are working to enroll children after the age of 5, at the insurance level, while putting in place strategies to allow mutualists to be comfortable, as regards strikes ". According to him, the State has managed to pay 7 billion CFA francs on the debt to hospitals and other health structures which was estimated at 12 billion.
The Director of health insurance, Serigne Diouf, speaking, has stated that "the Cmu Act will be an instrument that will allow us to sustain" this health policy.
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