Gov’t provides free care for citizens incapable of paying

CAIRO – 17 December 2017: The Egyptian government will not abdicate responsibility of including those who are incapable of paying for treatment in the bill of the comprehensive social health insurance, Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said on Sunday in a keynote speech delivered in the House of Representative’s plenary session.

El-Garhy added that the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) is conducting studies to determine the citizens who are, according to international standards, incapable of paying for treatment. The data would then be amended and updated under the supervision of the prime minister, who would then issue a final decree of those to be included under the law.

The finance minister clarified that the committee, which determines the criteria of classifying those citizens, is highly organized and classifies citizens according to studies conducted by CAPMAS.

The minister underscored the necessity of guaranteeing financial sustenance to the new health insurance system.“We have to obtain a view for the economy to develop and improve,” he stated.

Parliament ratified during its general assembly session on Sunday, after discussing the Health Committee’s report on the law, the comprehensive health insurance bill drafted and submitted by the government in October.

Citizens who cannot afford to pay for their health care comprise 30-40 percent of the population. Subscription would be obligatory to those who can afford covering treatment costs for all diseases. The sources of funding would include fees paid by citizens, donations, tax on cigarettes and other fees.

In the past month, Parliament’s Health Committee held intensive meetings with the Minister of Health, Ahmed Emad el-Din, and state officials to hear the government’s view on the bill.

The new bill mandates establishing three new administrative bodies to manage the new system: a financing body; a healthcare body to deliver the service in primary healthcare units and hospitals; and a body that will handle accreditation of service units and providers, quality of service and supervision of operations.

Egypt has allocated LE 53.3 billion ($2.9 billion) in the current fiscal year’s (2016/17) budget to healthcare, which accounts for 5.7 percent of total government expenditures.