Focus on Morocco | Health Care Access Topic Brief
HEALTH CARE ACCESS
The SWMENA survey, in addition to gathering information about women’s and men’s economic, social and political status, investigated the extent to which women in Morocco had access to formal health care. The survey also examined issues of affordability, quality of care, utilization, and proximity to medical services. This topic brief presents the principal findings with respect to women’s access to health care.
Formal Health Care and Traditional Medicine
Moroccan women were asked whether they had access to a formal health care provider and whether they ever used traditional medicine. The questions were designed to assess whether women and their families have options so that they can seek formal health care providers and specialists to deliver preventive, routine and emergency health care to maintain overall health and well-being. It should be noted that in urban areas, government-funded health centers or clinics are located in every district, and services rendered are free of charge.
- More than seven in ten Moroccans (71%) do not have access to a formal health care provider.
- As Figure 1 illustrates, more men than women say they do not have access to a formal health care provider (82% and 69%, respectively), and women report that they are more likely than men to have access to a physician or licensed health care provider (31% vs. 18%).
- In Morocco, access to formal health care is more than twice as readily available in urban areas compared to rural areas (42% vs. 17%) (Figure 2). The overwhelming majority of women, however, still report a lack of access to a health care provider regardless of region (57% of urban residents and 81% of rural residents).
