AMO Compulsory medical insurance for the self-employed A crackdown on abuse: Creation of businesses Casablanca blocks everything
To counter opportunistic behavior and encourage the self-employed to pay their Social Security (CNSS) contributions on a regular basis. To this end, amendments have been made to Law 98-15 on the basic health insurance scheme for professionals, self-employed workers, and self-employed professionals. These changes, recently published in the Official Gazette, tighten the conditions for benefitting from the AMO-TNS coverage.
Sanctions have been introduced to encourage self-employed workers to pay their contributions. They are aimed at those who disappear from the radar for more than 6 consecutive months before reappearing. Even if they subsequently pay their social security contributions, a 3-month waiting period will be observed. This applies from the month following that in which the insured person regularizes his or her situation. This provision is intended to encourage regular payment of contributions and prevent certain practices from developing. As a result, paying contributions once a person has fallen ill no longer enables that person to receive benefits quickly.
In a system based on solidarity, regular payment of contributions is important. State subsidies and grants are also conditional on the payment of contributions. The same applies to the renewal of certain administrative documents required to practice the profession.
Amendments to the law provide solutions to specific situations faced by teams in the field. This is the case, for example, of a self-employed worker who falls into a specific professional category and is subject to the Single Professional Contribution (Contribution Professionnelle Unique, CPU). Here, the criterion is that of the CPU, a system that enables taxpayers in low-income activities to pay a single tax that includes, on the one hand, business-related taxes and levies (Income tax, professional tax and municipal service tax), and, on the other, a supplement to social security benefits, initially covering compulsory health insurance.
In other words, tax status will take precedence. There is also a provision in the law to deal with cases where the self-employed person has more than one professional activity. In this case, the contribution due is based on the highest flat-rate income.
The AMO TNS contribution rate is 6.37%, applicable to a flat-rate income pegged to the minimum wage, depending on the socio-professional category.
Khadija MASMOUDI
