Egypt - Health insurance Bill tabled to lawmakers
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Nov 2016
The Egyptian government presented its long-awaited Bill for a comprehensive health insurance law to Parliament last month, following the completion of the drafting of the law.
Deputy Minister of Finance Mohamed Meit said that the Ministry of Finance has pledged to provide EGP5 billion (US$562.8 million) to the Health Insurance Authority when the new law comes into effect, reported Daily News Egypt. The amount includes EGP1.6 billion of cigarette tax revenue which is allocated for health insurance.
The new health insurance scheme aims to provide coverage to low-income households with the family subscribing as the beneficiary of the plan instead of individuals.
Deliberations over the proposed health insurance scheme have been carried out for at least two years with the main issues discussed being who are to be the beneficiaries of the plan and how it would be funded.
The Ministry of Health is planning to conduct a pilot project in several cities before implementing the new health insurance scheme nationwide.
EGP1 = US$0.11