2024-07-24 10:27:59
“Finding solutions for a set of challenges related to the implementation of this reform remains essential, particularly with regard to the balance of health insurance schemes and the control of expenditure in this ecosystem,” said Mr. Lekjaa, who was responding to a question on the financing of the social protection project, asked during the oral question session in the House of Councilors.
According to the minister, the indicators linked to the financial balances of these different schemes show that their expenditure is evolving at a faster pace in relation to their resources, which could negatively impact the financial viability of the basic compulsory health insurance (AMO) schemes.
In this regard, he explained that this is due to a combination of factors, including the continued rise in the morbidity index and the increase in the index of chronic diseases.
Mr. Lekjaa thus considered that it has become more necessary than ever to reflect, within the framework of an inclusive, integrated and participatory approach, on the development of an integrated model making it possible to reconcile the needs for accessibility to high-quality services and the constraints of financial sustainability of these regimes.
In this regard, he said that the government, in collaboration with the various partners concerned, is examining several measures that will allow controlling the level of expenditure, while ensuring their effectiveness and without compromising the quality of the services provided.
And to continue that this implies the adoption of a preventive health policy essential to mitigate and control the incidence rate of diseases, as well as the adoption of a pharmaceutical policy aimed at controlling expenditure on medicines.
Mr. Lekjaa also stressed the importance of strengthening accessibility to these medicines on the one hand, and protecting the national pharmaceutical industry on the other. It is also a question of accelerating the operationalization of the care pathway and therapeutic protocols and making them mandatory, in addition to accelerating the digitalization of the health sector and the adoption of the electronic medical record.
“Today, we can all say, with pride and thanks to the enlightened vision of His Majesty the King, that we have succeeded in making the generalization of basic AMO and direct social assistance a concrete reality for citizens,” the minister stressed.
He specified that the financing of the social protection project, within the framework of the solidarity-based mechanism, requires annual financing of approximately 35 billion dirhams (MMDH) in 2024, then 40 MMDH in 2026, adding that the unified social register (RSU) is an essential tool for the success of the project via the precise targeting of categories eligible for aid.
Mr. Lekjaa also said that a comprehensive survey was conducted for all social programs, which number around 100, to consolidate only social assistance programs, specifying that this operation made it possible to mobilize nearly 15 billion dirhams.
At the same time, he revealed the establishment of a vision to continue the compensation reform, stressing that this measure will make it possible to mobilize significant financial margins estimated at around 3 billion dirhams in 2024 and 8 billion dirhams in 2025.
The minister also reported on the operationalization of solidarity mechanisms, which “should generate 7 billion in tax revenues linked to the social solidarity contribution on profits and income”, as well as the allocation of revenues from taxes on insurance contracts and the domestic consumption tax (TIC) applied to a set of products, which will make it possible to mobilize nearly 4 billion dirhams.
At another level, Mr. Lekjaa indicated that the liberatory contribution for assets and liquidities held abroad, which has been activated, should mobilize significant resources that will be entirely dedicated to financing this reform, in addition to the social protection support fund, which would reach a positive balance estimated at 9.2 billion dirhams at the end of 2023, to finance the expenses of the social protection project.
2024-07-24 10:27:59