Egypt’s government spending in the health sector increased by 20% in the fiscal year 2019/2020, according to the National Health Accounts report, compared to the previous report for the fiscal year 2014/15, in addition to an increase in per capita public health spending at the regional level.
According to the report, the percentage of personal expenditure on health decreased to less than 59.3%, and Port Said governorate witnessed the lowest personal expenditure on health by 47.9%, as a result of the implementation of the comprehensive health insurance system there.
Ahmed El-Sobki, the Chairman of the Healthcare Authority, said that Egypt has witnessed remarkable progress in improving financial indicators related to health, which reflects the success of the Egyptian state in comprehensive health reform processes, which is the basis for the success of development in any country in the world.
This came on Sunday, during the launching of the National Health Accounts report for the fiscal year 2019/2020, in the presence of Mohamed Awad Taj El-Din, the Advisor to the President of the Republic for Health and Prevention Affairs, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, the Minister of Health and Population, Mohamed Maait, the Minister of Finance, and Rania Al-Mashat, the Minister of International Cooperation, and Naima Al-Qaseer, the representative of the World Health Organization in Egypt.
El-Sobki pointed out that comprehensive health insurance has been implemented in 6 governorates so far, Port Said, Ismailia, Luxor, South Sinai, Suez and Aswan, and in the near future the system will extend to all parts of Egypt in less than 10 years.
He continued, “The Egyptian state has an ambitious plan to reduce the percentage of personal out-of-pocket spending on health to less than (20-22) per cent, according to Egypt’s vision for sustainable health development 2030.”
The national health accounts aim to support the sustainability, competitiveness, and governance of the healthcare sector in the country, and to establish an integrated national platform with a sustainable vision to collect health spending data and improve planning and resource allocation, with a special focus on distributing expenditures according to diseases and linking them to budgets and health outcomes in a sustainable way to enhance drawing up national health plans and policies and evidence-based decision-making.
The new report was distinguished by taking into account – for the first time – all health sectors providing services, whether from the governmental, private or civil sectors and was grounded on several levels of medical interventions and at the governorate level. The report also took into account the implementation of the current health insurance system, in addition to the comprehensive health insurance system.
