Morocco Faces Deadlock Over PCR Test Price Reduction Amid Rising Costs

Bringing the price of the PCR test to 450 DH for private laboratories is not to the liking of the professionals. "You have to know that all the products we use for PCR, whether reagents, consumables, equipment..., everything is imported. With the health crisis and the pressure of demand, prices have skyrocketed," explains Said El Hafiane, president of the regional union of medical biologists in the Casablanca-Settat region.

The union representative opposes this project to reduce the prices of PCR tests, reports L’Économiste. ANAM is working to put in place a nomenclature for the reimbursement of the test by the AMO. The price charged in private laboratories should drop from 680 to 450 DH. A price drop that is hard to swallow. Laboratories explain that this selling price is well below the cost price which amounts to 550 DH. Another argument put forward: the investments made to comply with the specifications imposed by the Ministry of Health.

"Even in countries where everything is locally manufactured, the RT-PCR is billed at more than 60 euros, not counting the sampling. If you add it, you also have to integrate the kit, the protection of the personnel, the management of the waste... To reduce these costs, the State should have secured the distribution channel for the products," adds Mr. El Hafiane.

The PCR test will have to cost 800 DH for people not covered by the AMO. "We do not give our agreement to the proposal to under-invoice at 450 DH for CNOPS and CNSS members, and to over-invoice at 804 DH for other citizens. This measure is even unconstitutional," comments the union representative.