The Health Insurance and Social Guarantee Office, or CNAMGS, was created in August 2007 in an effort to tackle poverty and the obstacles many families have in accessing healthcare. Currently, the majority of the population in Gabon spends the better part of their income on health services (an average of 52.1% of household income, according to the World Health Organization). This situation causes global impoverishment that acts like a vicious cycle, crippling the economy and slowing development.
Over the past two years, CNAMGS has been in charge of ensuring health and welfare coverage for ‘Economically Weak Gabonese’ (EWG), and in the coming year, it will spread coverage over to state workers and the private sectors. “At the end of this process, Gabon will be the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to settle a compulsory universal healthcare insurance,” says Michel Mboussou, managing director of CNAMGS.
This new national health insurance will improve access to health for nearly all social strata of the population by lightening individual charges, while providing healthcare institutions with assured financial means. This mechanism is a clear indication of Ali Bongo Ondimba’s social policy, which is based on the principle of “everyone contributes according to his means, but receives according to his needs.”
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