The Minister of Health and Population, Hala Zayed stressed the implementation of the new comprehensive Health Insurance Law in Port Said on the scheduled date in early July. In a statement on Tuesday, Zayed denied what was reported by some media outlets about the lack of a financial budget allocated for implementing the law on time. During her meeting with the committee of the plan and budget at the House of Representatives, to discuss the draft budget of the ministry of health for fiscal year 2019/20, the minister said that the meeting aims to increase the budget of the ministry and support it with EGP 33.5bn in order to fund the presidential initiatives that would improve the health of the Egyptian citizen. She explained that the needed support of the health budget will be directed toward several initiatives such as the “100 Million Health” initiative which has achieved great success. The minister also pointed out that there are projects which require support to be implemented in accordance with international quality standards. These projects include the National Project for Model Hospitals, the National Project for the Assembly and Separation of Plasma, and increasing spending on treatment at the expense of the state until the application of the new Health Insurance Law, as well as the presidential initiative to support investment in health service providers. Zayed pointed out that the new comprehensive health insurance project is being implemented in the governorates of the first phase in accordance with the set time plan, noting that the sum of EGP 17.5bn, which was requested to support the ministry's budget as part of the total amount of EGP 33.5 bn.
