Egyptian cabinet headed by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail approved the "Comprehensive Health Care Bill" on Monday, to be referred to the Legislative Committee of the State Council, Health Minister Ahmed Emad stated, describing the bill as "important step in Egypt's history." In a press conference held at the cabinet, Emad said the bill that will provide citizens with comprehensive health insurance, has been reviewed six times since January 2016. Health care project, which should be approved by House of Representatives and the President, will state establishing three bodies concern providing citizens with proper health service, the first is "Funding Body" that will be responsible for gathering the contributions of citizens and the state, the second is "Health Care Authority" that concerns giving the citizens the health services in different hospitals, the third body will be observatory body, to monitor the quality of health care provided and train physicians. Health care centers in the new law will be divided to three departments, the "Initial Health Care" that will serve 70 percent of cases, "Dual-service Hospitals" that will serve the severe conditions and "Three-service Hospitals" that will provide surgeries for deteriorated cases. "The state is responsible for full treatment of citizens unable to afford the costs," Emad said in his statement, explaining that the task of identifying the poor citizens through the Ministry of Social Solidarity, who are approximately between 30 to 40 percent of the people. The law will be applied on canal governorates as a trial, three months later of approving it by the president, Emad said, affirming that public hospitals will be mandated to serve the new law, aided by private sector hospitals, according to regulations determined by the Health Care Authority. The first health care law in Egypt was formed in 1936, but the turning point of health care history was in 1964, that stated that all workers should be covered by health insurance for percentage of their salaries, and then the last amendment was in 1997, that stated including all children from birth to primary education in the health insurance.
