People with health insurance welcome the benefits health insurance provides. The scheme covers 70% of services rendered in private clinics, and 90% in public hospitals. Premium rates depend on whether insured persons also have private insurance. Jamila Marouani, who has worked for more than ten years, says this is the first time she is not afraid of becoming ill as she knows her healthcare expenses will be reimbursed: "I received my first refunds last April, I was very happy."

But not everyone is content with the programme. Tazi told Magharebia that "the roll-out of the AMO programme has come up against some obstacles which we are gradually overcoming." The payment rates for doctor appointments and home visits determined by the National Health Insurance Agency were largely deemed to be too low. Dr. Mohamed Naciri Bennani, president of the National Union of Private-Sector Doctors, claims that the proposed rates are "an insult to the profession."

The pricing dispute was largely diffused on Monday January 8th following a partnership agreement between the Ministry of Health and a group of healthcare professionals. The agreement establishes procedures for developing, assessing and updating clinical practices, establishing a basis for claims assessment, implementing cost control measures and providing ongoing training for practitioners. Still, said Tazi, "The Ministry of Health will set prices."

Overall the national programme is in its early stages. Although many hospitals have signed partnership agreements with the Ministry of Health, university hospitals have not yet joined the network of AMO healthcare providers. In February 2008 the CNOPS plans to launch an awareness campaign to explain the benefits of AMO to the public. The campaign will be followed by a push to extend coverage to between 12 and 15 million low-income individuals who currently have no form of health insurance.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/03/08/feature-02
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Women playing key roles in Guinée and Morocco.
- Labour news from UNI global union - for trade unions in a global services economy. -
Tributes were paid at the Women’s Day celebrations at the International Labour Organisation in Geneva to the head of the trade union centre in Guinée, Rabiatu Serah Diallo. Ms Diallo was meant to be one of two keynote speakers in an event celebrating working women but was unable to attend because of the key negotiations still going on in her country to end the political crisis there. Mr Diallo and the unions have been in the forefront of challenging a military government to take the country along the road to union and human rights. “She is negotiating on behalf of unions and democracy,” the ILO’s Assame Dioppe told the meeting. “It is her day too and we are celebrating her victory.” Many lives have already been lost in the constitutional confrontation and general strike in Guinée and the ILO Director General Juan Somavia called last month for the authorities there to ensure the safety of union leaders. Ms Diallo is a member of the ILO’s Governing Body. Others highlighting Ms Diallo’s key role in Guinée included UNI Women’s Monique Marti.

“The veil on globalisation has been lifted,” said Amal El Amri from the Moroccan trade union centre UMT (and formerly with the Moroccan banking union). She had been invited to speak in the absence of Ms Diallo and identified illiteracy as a huge obstacle to progress of women in her country.
In rural areas of Morocco eight out every 10 girls are illiterate and across the whole country among women it is 60%. The success of the other key speaker - successful Iranian-American business woman and paying astronaut Anousheh Ansari - was the exception said Ms El Amri: “nothing to do with women’s reality in countries like Morocco”. Globalisation had destroyed jobs as well as created jobs and unions are banned from development zones. “We are changing the course of globalisation to give it a human face.” She reported on initiatives - with the help of global unions - to increase trade union membership among women, training and feminising not just union structures but also union decision-making.

Ms Ansari told her audience “I don’t represent the women of the world but I do represent hope”. Her family arrived in the USA as migrants when she was 16. She learnt English and became an engineer in a male world. Later she founded a telecom company with her husband that grew to employ 250 workers. Later they sold it for more than $200m and this made it possible for Ms Ansari to buy a $20m dollar ticket on a Russian Soyuz rocket to visit the International Space Station and fulfill a childhood dream. As a woman in a male dominated world she said: “you have to prove yourself over and over again. I decided not to get bitter, I decided to prove everybody wrong”.

Women are breaking through the glass ceiling said the ILO’s Zoreh Tabatabai but many still face unequal pay and suffer from violence, the lack of clean water and health care and children forced into working by poverty. Referring to Ms Ansari’s migration to the US and subsequent success she told her audience: “migrants bring incredible wealth, creativity and intelligence to their host countries”.
http://www.union-network.org/UNIFlashes.nsf/0/AA2B3508051F82A3C12572980053E761?OpenDocument
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Moroccan expatriates' remittances up 6.8% in January 2007.
Rabat, Mar.8 

Moroccan expatriates' remittances reached MAD 3.94Bn (USD 465Mn) in January 2007 up from MAD 3.69Bn (USD 435 Mn) in the same period of last year, i.e. a 6.8 % increase, according to figures released by the Office des Changes. Compared to average remittances of January of 2002 through 2006 which stood at MAD 3.13Bn (USD 369Mn), this year's witnessed a 25.6% increase, added the same source. The Exchange Office had announced earlier that Moroccan expatriates' remittances reached USD 5.1Bn in the first eleven months of 2006, i.e. a 15% increase compared to the same period of 2005 (USD 4.4Bn). http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/imp_economy/moroccan_expatriates4849/view
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EU committed to financially complete development projects underway in Morocco, diplomat.
Casablanca, Mar. 8 

The European Union is committed to financially complete the development projects that are underway in Morocco, part of the European Neighbourhood Policy, said, here Wednesday, Bruno Dethomas, ambassador-head of the European Commission Delegation in Rabat. Speaking at a meeting held by the European Commission delegation on the mechanisms of the European support to the economic development and the public sector, the European diplomat said the decision to raise the envelope granted to socio-economic development in Morocco stems from the substantial growth achieved by the North African country in 2006, along with the good prospects for the year 2007.

Dethomas went on to say that the steadfast growth achieved every year prompted the EU to grant support to 29 socio-economic and cultural projects, requiring over € 69Mn, within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy. He noted that Morocco will benefit from a €654Mn envelope that is destined to support the 2007-2010 EU-Morocco action plan, i.e. a 20% increase compared to the annual average for the 1995-2006 period.

For his part, the secretary general of the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Economy Upgrading, Bouselham Hilia, said the decision to grant an advanced status to Morocco is the fruit of substantial efforts made by the kingdom in large-scale reforms, which have enabled Moroccan products to conform to the international standards.

The European financial support touches mainly on various fields, namely infrastructure, transport and housing. The European Union also provides assistance in private sector modernization, integrated rural development and economic development, education, vocational training, culture and good governance.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/economy/eu_committed_to_fina6183/view
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Moroccan women's assets should be strengthened, minister.
Rabat, Mar.8 

State Secretary in charge of the Family, Childhood and the Disabled, Yasmina Baddou stressed, here Thursday, the need "to double efforts so as to secure and strengthen Moroccan women's assets through multi sector programs." In an interview published by the French-speaking daily "Aujourd'hui le Maroc" on the International Women's Day, Baddou underscored the need to promote women's economic rights by supporting women's entrepreneurship, backing their participation to local decision-making and incorporating their needs within local government programs.