SS: Ulimatou Ticaire (phonetic) has been selling fresh vegetables and dried fish outside Senégal's capital since 1995. She's an independent businesswoman in a cash economy. With her husband out of work, she worried about how to pay the family's medical bills. Then, she joined a health insurance program through a women's cooperative credit union. For the equivalent of $2 a month, Ticaire's family of five is covered.
UT: I got sick when I was pregnant. When I went to the hospital, all my bills were paid by insurance. The children get malaria, especially during the rainy season. When they go to the hospital, the insurance pays the bills.
SS: Fatoumatabay Guay (phonetic) is the regional director of the network of programs for urban and rural women. Her cooperative focuses on women in low-income families, providing low-interest loans, health screening and computer training. But Guay says it's the health insurance program that has most changed women's lives.
FG: Truly, women no longer have health difficulties because you know, in Senégal, we say that health does not have a price, but it does have a cost. Insurance companies do not want to work with informal sector workers. With this health insurance, we are taking care of the women.
SS: The program pools the risk of more than 20,000 women; and participating hospitals bill the cooperative directly. Ticaire says it helps low-income families meet medical bills without having to borrow money.
UT: Imagine having to pay medical bills every time your family gets sick. Many of the people who are part of this program are poor and cannot afford to pay their medical bills up front. So, this program is very important, because it saves us from the worry of where to get money to pay the doctor.
SS: Ticaire used some of the money she saved to open a bread kiosk next to her vegetable stand, where her daughter Koumba (phonetic) sells baguettes and hard-boiled eggs.
KT: If our mother had not joined this health insurance program, life would have been very difficult for us because father is not working. So, it would have been difficult to pay our bills.
SS: With the ability to insure up to fifteen family members and a 25% discount at participating pharmacies, Guay says the program is best-summarized by its Wolof language name “wea wele” (phonetic), or “health for myself”, among others who are healthy. Scott Stearns, VOA News, Gejevi, Senégal.
标题
Senegal Women Get Health Insurance (VOA)
视频介绍
Voice of America - June 17, 2009
Report on a women's cooperative health insurance program in the West African nation of Senégal.
