CAIRO: A recent report issued by the Health Division of the National Council for Social Services revealed that more than 29 million Egyptians do not have access to basic needs such as food and health care. It said that more than 43 percent of Egyptians live on less than $2 per day and a large number of people live well below the poverty line. According to the report, nearly all those 43 percent are unable to receive adequate health care. The report confirmed that lack of access to health care is not only restricted to the impoverished, but includes a high proportion of the middle-class. This results in the government's inability to properly provide health care services to the wide range of people in the country and is unable to give even basic health services to 29 million people. The report pointed out that per capita health care spending in wealthy nations is much higher when compared to Egypt. In the United States, the per capita expenditure for health care is around $2,700, while in Europe it is around $2,000, but in Egypt, the per capita government spending on health services is a measly $26. The report added that 10 percent of global health spending covers 90 percent of the world's poor, mostly in the African continent. It pointed out that citizens account for less than 51 percent of the financing of the health sector in Egypt, while the Ministry of Finance contributes 35 percent and the Social Affairs Ministry another 6 percent. In the West, companies often provide health care for their employees, but in Egypt, the report stated that only 5 percent of companies provide health insurance for its staff. Foreign donors provide approximately 3 percent of Egypt's public health care, the report said. In a same vein, the report said many poorer families spend more money on health care than their wealthier counterparts, because critical diseases are more prevalent among the impoverished, pointing out that the proportion of beneficiaries of social insurance or private, is less than 50 percent of the population. The report said that there are many problems in the system of health insurance, where contributions as provided by law only cover 44 percent of expenditures, as well as the contributions of pensioners and widows only cover 17 percent of expenditure, “thus the deficit in the treatment of pensioners and widows increases year after year and the gap between the contributions and the actual cost of the maintenance of health insurance reached 454 million Egyptian pounds.” The report attributed that to the lack of government contributions to the insurance services for pensioners, whose cost of health care is six times more than their contributions. BM
