35% of Egypt’s Population to Get Free Medical Treatment, but What About the Rest?

Ahmed Emad, Minister of Health and Population, stated that the new Health Insurance Law, debated and passed during these last few weeks in Egypt’s Parliament, will guarantee free treatment to low-income individuals.

Those who qualify for this free treatment represent an approximate 35% of Egypt’s total population. The percentage remains approximate because the tools and criteria by which to measure which families and/or individuals are to count as low-income — consequently qualifying for free medical coverage — is yet to be established and determined by The Ministry of Social Solidarity.

The Ministry of Social Solidarity is not only going to use these criteria for the purposes of applying the novel Health Insurance Law in an equitable manner, rather, it will also use these criteria to set up a comprehensive database broken down along clear and appropriate lines of social and economic class indicators.

Emad finally added that the remaining 65% of Egyptians will fund their own health care coverage, viz-a-viz a defined fee that they will pay annually towards health care. These rules will apply to Egyptian living and/or working abroad.

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