CAIRO: The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Health, denouncing its proposal of the new medical insurance law that was sent to the People's Assembly (PA). The new medical insurance law is argued to change the governmental medical insurance entity into a holding company. EIPR claims that it is unconstitutional for the prime minister to change a government entity to a holding company, a right preserved to the president. While the ministry insists that the authority responsible for medical insurance wasn't turned into a holding company, EIPR says this happened indirectly. This argument adopted by the EIPR drove the organization to take legal action against the Health Ministry. The lawsuit was filed a few weeks ago but the trial was postponed to Nov. 13. The human rights organization told Daily News Egypt that the prime minister had transferred all of the medical insurance's hospitals and clinics to a new holding company leaving the original government entity empty of most of its services and facilities. The Ministry of Health has issued a press release in local media last month responding to what it called "EIPR claims about the new law. The ministry accused the EIPR of promoting false information without evidence, according to EIPR's press release. "EIPR aims at making the Egyptian citizens doubt the political strategies applied in accordance to President Hosni Mubarak's last presidential campaign, the ministry reportedly told local papers. EIPR dismisses Ministry of Health's argument "claims that the decision to build an insurance holding company provides better services to the public and increases the number of people whose medical needs can be covered by the medical insurance entity. They say quality won't necessarily improve if hospitals were run by a holding company. This move, the organization continues, will only enable the government to profit from hospitals built by taxpayers' money. On the other hand, a top official in the Ministry of Health, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Daily News Egypt that the new medical insurance law is currently in the hands of the PA. Therefore, any debate on the issue is pointless, he added. "All of the cases and questions concerning the new law are on hold until the PA reaches its decision, he said. Dr Hamdy El Sayyed, head of the PA's health committee and chairman of the Doctors' Syndicate, told Daily News Egypt in a previous interview that the new law will noticeably raise the quality and services provided by all hospitals in Egypt and will cater to the needs and abilities of all social classes. He said that some officials and legislators claim that obligatory subscription fees that citizens will be required to pay in accordance to the proposed law conflict with the constitution. But El Sayyed explained that the government has been implementing the insurance law since 1964 and that subscription fees have always been automatically deducted from peoples' salaries. However, based on the same argument, other members of the health committee still believe the law is unconstitutional. Dr Farid Ismail, PA member affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, who is also member in the PA's health committee, told Daily News Egypt that the law conflicts with the constitution in two main points. The constitution states that the government is responsible for providing free healthcare for citizens, says Ismail, while the new medical insurance law states that citizens are obliged to pay fixed subscription fees and 30 percent of the total bill of the hospital in which they will be treated. The second contradiction, according to Ismail, is that the law mandates that the subscription fee collection must take place before the new law is implemented. This means that citizens will be paying fees for a medical service they will not be receiving. According to Ismail, for this law to be implemented, there must be a new independent committee to supervise it.
