The Ministry of Health vowed to start the implementation of the Comprehensive Health Insurance Law after the formation of financial, monitoring, and operational bodies of the new health insurance system, according to parliamentary sources. They expected that these bodies will be formed within two months, and the law will be first applied in Port Said governorate. The parliament approved the new comprehensive health insurance earlier this year, and it will be implemented in five governorates in the Suez Canal region, as well as North and South Sinai. The parliamentary health committee met this week with Health Minister Hala Zayed to discuss her strategy of developing the sector, during the coming period. Mohamed Al-Amary, head of the health committee, said in a previous statement to Daily News Egypt that the parliament was not informed about the postponement of the comprehensive health insurance, though the health officials confirmed it will be delayed for three or seven months until the formation of the aforementioned bodies. The first phase of the health insurance will cost about EGP 9.3bn and will be firstly applied in Port Said and then in another Suez Canal governorate after six months. MP Shadia Thabet said that the new health insurance law is one of the most important laws passed by the parliament, during the last period, and it will ease the burden of treatment for Egyptians, in line with the constitution, which stipulates that 3% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) shall be allocated for the health sector. Despite this constitutional article, the financial allocations for the health sector in the current fiscal year did not exceed EGP 62bn—much lower than the allocated 3% of the GDP, which amounts to about EGP 5.2tn. The parliament rejected its health committee's request to increase the sector's allocations in the general budget by EGP 20bn to develop a number of hospitals nationwide. The health committee criticised the government programme, presented earlier this month before the parliament because it lacked a timetable for development programmes of integrative Takamul and central hospitals in different areas. MP Samy Al-Mashed, a member of the health committee, said “the former minister of health had conducted a study to develop 370 integrative Takamul hospitals at a cost of EGP 11bn." He added that the new government vowed to develop 42 hospitals at the same cost, which raises a question about “the real cost of development of all integrative Takamul hospitals under the new studies.”
