VOA慢速英语 健康保险为塞内加尔市场女性解忧

　　Health Insurance Eases Worries of Senegal's 'Market Women'

　　健康保险为塞内加尔市场女性解忧

　　This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

　　In Senegal, some people receive medical coverage from large employers. Some buy their own insurance. But most Senegalese are uninsured, especially the poor -- a common story across Africa and elsewhere. If they get injured or sick, they must somehow pay the costs themselves, or go untreated. The lack of health insurance is greatest among workers who deal in the informal cash economy. They include what Africans call "market women" -- women who sell produce and other food at local markets. But a women's cooperative in Senegal is offering low-cost health insurance for market women. The coverage is offered through a credit union, part of what is called the Network of Programs for Urban and Rural Women.

　　More than twenty thousand women now pay into the insurance program. It pays for care at participating health centers. But it does not pay for conditions that existed before a person was insured, or for cancer, heart disease or H.I.V./AIDS.

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