The Universal Health Coverage , in its pilot phase officially launched on Wednesday 12 April in the East region, targets more than 6 million people.

For its implementation, the UHC targets children from 0 to 5 years who will benefit from free treatment of simple and severe malaria, pregnant women in the three northern regions (Far North, North and Adamaoua), in the East and South via the health voucher, people of all ages living with HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis, kidney failure and onchocerciasis.

The care basket, covers preventive, promotional and curative aspects. “With the launch of this phase 1, we should expect an improvement in the supply of care, as well as much better access to healthcare because there is a section of the population that, before, did not have access to health structures simply because they  were financial barriers. With what we have started, the target populations today can have access to medical care without paying directly for it because there is a mechanism of third party payment,” said Minister Manaouda Malachie, in remarks reported by CRTV.

With the UHC, haemodialysis care should be reduced from 720,000 to 15,000 FCFA per year for all enrolled patients. Like dialysis patients, pregnant women will also have to pay a “package” via the health voucher programme, a mechanism for pre-payment of health services that aims to reduce neonatal and maternal mortality by improving the care of pregnant women.

In concrete terms, a pregnant woman in the five above-mentioned regions will buy a health voucher for 6,000 CFA francs and benefit from the coverage of her care during her pregnancy, as well as that of her newborn child up to the age of 42 days. The government states that the basket of care will be expanded over time to eventually cover the entire population.