Health Care in Morocco

Something I have been wondering about since we have arrived in Morocco is their health care. With all of the farmers we have seen using handmade or industrial equipment and the women working in factories or on the floor using rocks as tools, I was curious about the state of protection that the government provides these workers and how it compares to the United States. Specifically, after seeing the process of women in the argon cooperative cracking open argon seeds with blunt rocks on the floor, I then notices their bandaged fingers and hands, which propelled my deeper dive into the healthcare system of Morocco. 

Morocco has a two tiered healthcare system including both a public and a private sector. The state is the primary provider as it accounts for 85% of supply whereas the private sector is only 15%. Most spending, however, is done in the private sector as it was a 60% private to 40% public ratio in 2022. Universities across the country also provide hospitals and supplies to strengthen their system, bolstering the promise of better healthcare for future generations. In fact, Morocco has various current plans that include increasing the number of doctors and nurses in the country to better their system as well as the construction of "eight new regional teaching hospitals, 29 urgent care hospitals, and four university hospitals over the next decade."

Therefore, the availability of care across the country is only increasing, but there is still a great distinction between the public and private sectors. The private care facilities are built mainly in metropolitan areas like Casablanca and Rabat, leaving the communities in rural areas at a disadvantage. Not only is the average rural income lower than that of urban areas making them less likely to pay for private care, but they also may have to travel further distances for the often superior private services. However, Morocco is taking efforts to rapidly reform the public sector to higher standards as it has recently opened the market to private investment and allocated $2.4 billion to the sector in 2022. While they do have availability of public healthcare now, Moroccans like the women in the argon cooperative will only see increasing opportunities to improve their health in following years as the government races towards reform. 

References: 

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/morocco-healthcare