In many developing countries, the establishment of insurance mechanisms is recommended to remove the financial barrier related to access to care. In Côte d'Ivoire, the General Mutual of State Employees and Agents (Mugefci) pursues this objective. However, concerns remain about the ability of this prepayment mechanism alone to ensure effective consumption of oral health care. The purpose of this paper, which is to contribute to the optimal use of insurance mechanisms, was to assess the accessibility of the oral health care of Mugefci beneficiaries. The cross-sectional study, which was conducted by the Medical Service for Civil Servants, concerned Mugefci beneficiaries who had come for medical consultation. The data collected included decayed tooth indices, absent due to caries or obturated, the DMF index, the time of the recourse and the reasons for giving up dental care as well as the willingness to pay for the care. The numbers and frequencies related to these variables have been calculated. 216 Mugefci beneficiaries participated in the study. The prevalence of caries was 50.9%, with a DMF index of 4.2. Self-medication was the first therapeutic remedy (47.7%) and 18.1% of beneficiaries reported that they had given up care due to lack of money. 47.2% of beneficiaries had a poor perception of dental care. The study showed that the existence of health insurance does not guarantee effective access to care. The availability of a quality care offer, the improvement of insurance coverage and the information of the beneficiaries about the services offered are factors to be taken into account to ensure effective consumption of oral health care.

In Côte d'Ivoire, the financial difficulties experienced by the population represent obstacles to the consumption of oral health care. Thus, insurance mechanisms based on the principle of cost sharing are recommended to improve financial accessibility to this care. The cross-sectional study was conducted with users of three public dental practices in the city of Abidjan. The data were collected using a questionnaire. The numbers and frequencies related to the modalities of the use of oral health care, as well as the users' perception of their costs were calculated. Also, the willingness of users to pay for oral care has been measured. 350 users participated in the study. More than one third of users (36%) felt that the cost of dental services was high. 80.1% and 57.1% of respondents reported spending less than 5 $ US to honor the cost of oral consultation and the purchase of medicines respectively. 74% of users were in favor of setting up an insurance system with a willingness to pay less than 10 $ US per month. This willingness to pay has been estimated for all users at 2 $ US per month. The willingness of populations to contribute to the financing of oral health care has been proven. Achieving universal health coverage based on solidarity requires the establishment of prepayment mechanisms by adjusting the amounts of contributions to each person's ability to pay.