Reforms for financial protection schemes towards universal health coverage, Senegal.

Advancing the public health insurance system is one of the key strategies of the Senegalese government for achieving universal health coverage. In 2013, the government launched a universal health financial protection programme, la Couverture Maladie Universelle. One of the programme's aims was to establish a community-based health insurance scheme for the people in the informal sector, who were largely uninsured before 2013. The scheme provides coverage through non-profit community-based organizations and by the end of 2016, 676 organizations had been established across the country. However, the organizations are facing challenges, such as low enrolment rates and low portability of the benefit package. To address the challenges and to improve the governance and operations of the community-based health insurance scheme, the government has since 2018 planned and partly implemented two major reforms. The first reform involves a series of institutional reorganizations to raise the risk pool. These reorganizations consist of transferring the risk pooling and part of the insurance management from the individual organizations to the departmental unions, and transferring the operation and financial responsibility of the free health-care initiatives for vulnerable population to the community-based scheme. The second reform is the introduction of an integrated management information system for efficient and effective data management and operations of the scheme. Here we discuss the current progress and plans for future development of the community-based health insurance scheme, as well as discussing the challenges the government should address in striving towards universal health coverage in the country.

Faire progresser le système public d'assurance maladie est l'une des principales stratégies du gouvernement sénégalais, qui ambitionne de rendre les soins de santé accessibles à tous. En 2013, le gouvernement a lancé un programme de protection financière global en la matière, la Couverture Maladie Universelle. L'un des objectifs de ce programme consistait à établir un régime communautaire d'assurance maladie pour les personnes appartenant au secteur informel, encore largement non assurées auparavant. Ce régime fournit une couverture par le biais d'organismes communautaires sans but lucratif. Fin 2016, 676 organismes de ce type avaient été créés aux quatre coins du pays. Néanmoins, ces organismes sont confrontés à des défis tels que le faible taux d'inscription et la transférabilité réduite de la gamme d'avantages sociaux. Pour y remédier, mais aussi pour améliorer la gouvernance et les opérations du régime communautaire d'assurance maladie, le gouvernement a planifié et partiellement appliqué deux réformes d'envergure depuis 2018. La première implique une série de réorganisations institutionnelles afin d'accroître la mutualisation des risques. Ces réorganisations consistent à transférer la mutualisation des risques et une partie de la gestion de l'assurance de chacun des organismes vers les unions départementales, et à confier au régime communautaire la responsabilité financière et la mise en œuvre des initiatives destinées à prodiguer des soins de santé aux populations les plus vulnérables. La seconde prévoit l'introduction d'un système de gestion intégrée de l'information afin d'administrer les données et les opérations plus rapidement et avec davantage d'efficacité. Dans ce document, nous évoquons les progrès actuels et les projets de développement futur du régime communautaire d'assurance maladie. Nous traitons également des défis que le gouvernement doit relever, ainsi que des efforts déployés pour offrir une couverture maladie universelle à l'ensemble du territoire.

La promoción del sistema público de seguro médico es una de las estrategias clave del Gobierno senegalés para lograr la cobertura sanitaria universal. En 2013, el gobierno lanzó un programa de protección financiera universal de la salud, la Couverture Maladie Universelle. Uno de los objetivos del programa era establecer un sistema comunitario de seguro médico para las personas del sector informal, que en su mayoría no tenían seguro antes de 2013. El sistema proporciona cobertura a través de organizaciones comunitarias sin fines de lucro y, a finales de 2016, se habían establecido 676 organizaciones en todo el país. Sin embargo, las organizaciones se enfrentan a desafíos, como las bajas tasas de inscripción y la baja portabilidad del paquete de prestaciones. Para hacer frente a los desafíos y mejorar la gobernanza y el funcionamiento del sistema comunitario de seguro médico, desde 2018 el Gobierno ha planificado y aplicado parcialmente dos reformas importantes. La primera reforma implica una serie de reorganizaciones institucionales para elevar las fuentes de riesgo. Estas reorganizaciones consisten en la transferencia de la mancomunación de riesgos y parte de la gestión de los seguros de las distintas organizaciones a los sindicatos departamentales, y en la transferencia de la operación y la responsabilidad financiera de las iniciativas de atención gratuita de la salud para la población vulnerable al sistema comunitario. La segunda reforma consiste en la introducción de un sistema integrado de información de gestión para una gestión de datos y un funcionamiento eficientes y efectivos del sistema. Aquí se discuten los avances actuales y los planes para el desarrollo futuro del sistema comunitario de seguro médico, así como los desafíos que el gobierno debe abordar en su lucha por lograr la cobertura sanitaria universal en el país.

Reforms for financial protection schemes towards universal health coverage, Senegal

Advancing the public health insurance system is one of the key strategies of the Senegalese government for achieving universal health coverage. In 2013, the government launched a universal health financial protection programme, la Couverture Maladie Universelle. One of the programme's aims was to establish a community-based health insurance scheme for the people in the informal sector, who were largely uninsured before 2013. The scheme provides coverage through non-profit community-based organizations and by the end of 2016, 676 organizations had been established across the country. However, the organizations are facing challenges, such as low enrolment rates and low portability of the benefit package. To address the challenges and to improve the governance and operations of the community-based health insurance scheme, the government has since 2018 planned and partly implemented two major reforms. The first reform involves a series of institutional reorganizations to raise the risk pool. These reorganizations consist of transferring the risk pooling and part of the insurance management from the individual organizations to the departmental unions, and transferring the operation and financial responsibility of the free health-care initiatives for vulnerable population to the community-based scheme. The second reform is the introduction of an integrated management information system for efficient and effective data management and operations of the scheme. Here we discuss the current progress and plans for future development of the community-based health insurance scheme, as well as discussing the challenges the government should address in striving towards universal health coverage in the country

Ex vivo susceptibility and genotyping of Plasmodium falciparum isolates from Pikine, Senegal.

BACKGROUND: The monitoring of Plasmodium falciparum sensitivity to anti-malarial drugs is a necessity for effective case management of malaria. This species is characterized by a strong resistance to anti-malarial drugs. In Senegal, the first cases of chloroquine resistance were reported in the Dakar region in 1988 with nearly 7% population prevalence, reaching 47% by 1990. It is in this context that sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine temporarily replaced chloroquine as first line treatment in 2003, pending the introduction of artemisinin-based combination therapy in 2006. The purpose of this study is to assess the ex vivo sensitivity to different anti-malarial drugs of the P. falciparum population from Pikine. METHODS: Fifty-four samples were collected from patients with non-complicated malaria and aged between 2 and 20 years in the Deggo health centre in Pikine in 2014. An assay in which parasites are stained with 4', 6-di-amidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), was used to study the ex vivo sensitivity of isolates to chloroquine, amodiaquine, piperaquine, pyrimethamine, and dihydroartemisinin. High resolution melting was used for genotyping of pfdhps, pfdhfr, pfmdr1, and pfcrt genes. RESULTS: The mean IC50s of chloroquine, amodiaquine, piperaquine, dihydroartemisinin, and pyrimethamine were, respectively, 39.44, 54.02, 15.28, 2.23, and 64.70 nM. Resistance mutations in pfdhfr gene, in codon 437 of pfdhps gene, and an absence of mutation at position 540 of pfdhps were observed. Mutations in codons K76T of pfcrt and N86Y of pfmdr1 were observed at 51 and 11% population prevalence, respectively. A relationship was found between the K76T and N86Y mutations and ex vivo resistance to chloroquine. CONCLUSION: An increase in sensitivity of isolates to chloroquine was observed. A high sensitivity to dihydroartemisinin was observed; whereas, a decrease in sensitivity to pyrimethamine was observed in the parasite population from Pikine.