New health insurance in Egypt provides health coverage for all citizens: WHO

CAIRO - 10 April 2019: "Cooperation between the World Health Organization and the Egyptian Ministry of Health highlighted the new health insurance system, an important step taken by the government to provide comprehensive health coverage for all citizens," said Director of the WHO for the East Mediterranean Region Ahmed el-Maqri.

This came during the celebration of the World Health Day on April 7 organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) regional office.

The celebration was attended by UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Khairat Kabalari, United Nations Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program in Egypt Richard Dicktos and several members of the civil society, youth and media personell.

For his part, Diktos said that while health is the primary focus of the third goal of sustainable development, it is linked to many other goals, such as the goals of education, social protection and the environment.

He stressed the importance of partnership among United Nations agencies to achieve the goal of health for all; for example, the initiatives of healthy nutrition could be shared by agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Food Program.

In July 2018, the Ministry of Health headed by Hala Zayed took the measures needed to implement the new insurance system, upon instructions from President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to implement the first phase of the new Health Insurance Law.

According to Article 52 of the new law, the bodies established under this law shall have an independent budget and shall begin their financial year at the beginning of the fiscal year of the state and shall end it by the end of each year.