DAYS after legislators and the Government locked horns over a rumoured plan by the Ministry of Health to deny the poor free medical treatment in stormy session in Parliament, the issue continues to be a bone of contention for activists and health officials. Stunned by media reports about the inability of State-run and private hospitals to offer treatment to the poor, these activists are calling on the Government to do everything possible to keep the free medical treatment system going. “According to the constitution, the Government is responsible for offering treatment to citizens,” said Abdel Hamid Abaza, who is responsible for politicalcommunication at the Ministry of Health. “Hospitals don't offer treatment to citizens and this is a big problem,” he told a gathering this week at the premises of Al-Tahrir Printing and Publishing House, which publishes The Gazette. Hundreds of thousands of poor Egyptians were hard hit by the inability of the Ministry of Health to make available the necessary funds for their treatment. State-run and private hospitals have stopped treating poor Egyptians since mid December last year, according to several Egyptians. Some of these hospitals have even turned away hundreds of free medical treatment seekers for the Government's inability to pay for their treatment. Hospital administrations say they can not offer free treatment, while the Government does not pay for this treatment. The Ministry of Health is reported to have incurred debts to the hospitals of about $219 million. “This is a problem of money,” Mohamed Abdeen, the chairman of the Specialised Medical Councils, the Ministry of Health offices that decide whether citizens will be allowed to be offered free medical treatment. “The hospitals can't do anything else. If they don't get money, they won't be able to offer treatment or medicine for these people,” he added in statements to the press a few days ago. But this is bad news to millions of Egyptians who depend on the Government to give them treatment for their medical ailments. Around 35 million Egyptians are subscribed in this country's medical insurance system. A big portion of the rest of the population (Egypt's population is now around 82 million people) depend on the government to give them free healthcare. The government offered free treatment to about 2.2 million citizens last year. Most of them had serious health hazards, such as kidney failure, hepatitis C viral, diabetes, and blood pressure. Most of these citizens will not be ever treated if they do not get free treatment from the Government. To get free treatment, poor Egyptians must go to the premises of the Specialised Medical Councils in central Cairo and present proof of their illness. Specialists at these councils decide whether these citizens deserve to get medical treatment for free or not. But recently, many of these citizens failed to get approval for free treatment. This made many angry, including the members of Parliament who grilled the Minister of Health for being unable to provide the necessary money for the treatment of these people. “The Minister of Health must act to bring this problem to an end,” said Shereen Ahmed Fouad, an MP. “The money allocated for healthcare is so minimal,” he added. The curbs on free medical treatment are made up by a mix of drying government coffers, corruption, and favouritism, some people say. Egyptian authorities referred several legislators to prosecutors this week for being involved in corruption cases related to this free medical treatment. The legislators were reported to have meddled in the issuance of fabricated free treatment papers that cost the Government tens of millions of Egyptian pounds. This money could have been used to treat thousands of poor Egyptians who would otherwise be unable to pay for their own treatment. The Ministry of Health says around 700,000 high blood pressure and diabetes patients used to receive free healthcare at an annual cost of $183 million; and around 25,000 cancer patients cost the government $51 million annually. Egypt's economy grew by 7.1 per cent in 2007, 7.2 per cent in 2008 but just 4 per cent in 2009, according to the government. Independent analysts say the loss to the economy because of the global financial crisis is bigger than the Government is willing to admit. “Parliament must pass the medical insurance law quickly,” said Abaza of the Health Ministry's political communication office. “This law will bridge many of the gaps in the free medical treatment system,” he added at the gathering organised by Al-Tahrir House's Centre of Strategic and Security Studies.
