Egypt: Roll-out of universal healthcare scheme to be completed 5 years earlier
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Mar 2021
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has instructed that the implementation of the country’s comprehensive health insurance system nationwide is to be accelerated so that the scheme would be rolled out completely in 10 years instead of the originally scheduled 15 years, according to minister of finance and chairman of the General Authority for Comprehensive Health Insurance Dr Mohamed Maait.
The six-phase implementation of the healthcare scheme, which started experimentally in Port Said governorate in 2018, was originally scheduled to cover the whole of Egypt by 2032, but, based on Dr Maait’s announcement, the project will now be completed nationwide by 2027, reported Ahram Online.
The first phase, which includes Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, South Sinai, Luxor, and Aswan, was due to take four years to complete, with an estimated cost of $510m.
Governorates with citizens with the lowest incomes have been given priority in the programme’s schedule, with the capital Cairo relegated to the final phase of implementation.
The minister added that the political leadership pays great attention to the speed and accuracy of implementing the comprehensive health insurance system, which is one of the tools for reforming the health sector in Egypt.
The project will be supported by state-of-the-art technology as part of the ‘Digital Egypt’ strategy, a broader national plan targeting the digitisation of all government services countrywide. M