Ivory Coast creates mobile enrollment for health coverage program criticized for flaws

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — health authorities in Costa do Marfim launched mobile enrollment centers for the country’s universal health coverage program, which has been criticized since its creation in 2019 for difficulties in accessing benefits.

Côte d’Ivoire is one of the few countries in West Africa that offers a universal offer health program. But five years later, less than half of its citizens have signed up. Known locally by its French acronym CMU, the program is intended to cover 70% of citizens’ health care costs for a monthly fee of 1,000 West African CFA francs, or about $1.65.

However, many participants who managed to register reported glitches, including the fact that vouchers given to hospitals that were supposed to provide them with medicines were not subsequently accepted in pharmacies – requiring patients to pay out of pocket.

Mobile enrollment centers being rolled out in markets and remote neighborhoods are intended to allow Ivorians to sign up for the program and provide them with cards on the spot so they can immediately begin receiving care at hospitals, clinics and pharmacies across the country. country.

From 2019 until this year, only 13 million people, or 40% of the population, managed to register.

The country’s Health Minister, Pierre Dimba, said the mobile centers aim to reach people who have been unable to register for reasons including working long hours.

“We used the method that worked well when got the COVID-19 vaccinationwhich was to go to these people in the markets, in remote neighborhoods, so that they could sign up,” he said.

Resident Bruno Agnissan already has a CMU card, but went to an Abidjan mobile enrollment center looking for information on how to use it successfully.

He said that while his son was being treated for malaria in a hospital, the facility ran out of medicine. He was given a voucher and told to find the medicine at a local pharmacy.

“When we went to the pharmacy and I presented the voucher, the pharmacy said no, this is only for public employees, it will not work for us, private individuals,” said Agnissan. “I went to all the pharmacies and it didn’t work.”

Ultimately, he had to pay for the medicine out of pocket, he said.

Samuel Touffet, another local resident who came to the mobile center to catch up on the program’s coverage, echoed Agnissan’s concerns.

«There are so many pharmacies where if we go with the card it doesn’t work. So we want to know where the pharmacies are where we can go and use the card?” he said. “Also, when we go to the hospital with the card, they say it doesn’t work. Therefore, we don’t know how much this card is worth.”

Resident Martin Abou, who came to enroll himself and his family for the first time, was hopeful. “You never know. We don’t know what tomorrow holds,” he said.

Dimba, the health minister, said he hopes the program will become basic insurance covering all Ivory Coast citizens, with private insurance used only as a supplement.

He added that the objective is to have 20 million Ivorians registered by the end of the year.

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