While Egypt's new health insurance law has not been approved by Parliament yet, it continues to divide the nation and spark anger everywhere. The Government says the new law, which is due to be passed within a few months, will provide solutions to Egypt's “crumbling” health insurance system as well as provide the people of this country with all-out insurance. But this is a view rarely shared by any of the nation's activists and medical insurance subscribers. They say the new system will add yet more financial burdens on citizens in a way that will make this insurance a privilege for the rich only. “Medical insurance should be available for everybody,” said Mohamed Hassan Khalil, a medical doctor and a lobbyist against the new law. “But actually the new law does this in no way,” he added in a press conference in Cairo on Thursday. Khalil and his colleagues, scores of medical practitioners and political activists, staged protests against the new law, sent letters of opposition to it to the government, and organised press conferences to speak about its defects over the past few months to persuade the government to ditch it. They say the Government does not allow any discussion of the law so that citizens will not get to grasp the full danger it represents to their medical security and their prospects for getting treatment when they fall it. The Government has not announced any details of the new medical insurance bill yet. But the activists, who met at the premises of the Press Syndicate in central Cairo on Thursday, say some kinds of diseases - particularly those which need big amounts of money to treat - will not be covered by the new law. They say the law will also be one step on the road of giving the responsibility of health insurance to private companies that will “squeeze Egyptians' pockets dry of money”. “It's the responsibility of the Government to offer health insurance to everybody,” said Mohamed Shaaban, a member of the opposition Tagammu Party. “Egyptians are in no need for more financial loads,” he added. Nobody from the Health Ministry was available to comment on the claims of the activists. But the head of the Health Insurance Authority Seed Ratib said in previous statements to the media that the Government would exempt more than 20 per cent of the population of medical insurance fees. “This means that the Government would pay medical insurance fees on behalf of more than 15 million poor Egyptians,” Ratib said. He added that the new law would also put into consideration that other segments of the Egyptian society would not be able to pay for their medication. Despite this, the war against the new bill continues to rage unabated. The activists who met on Thursday swore to continue their fight against the bill until the Government “reconsiders it”. They managed to enlist the support of more than 60 non-governmental organisations as well as several political parties for their struggle to have the law either amended or cancelled out. “We totally reject that law,” said Mohamed Zahran, a medical doctor and a member of the opposition el-Wafd Party. “By making medical insurance the preserve of the rich only, this law violates the constitution,” he added.
