Participants: Health is a national security issue and law should be amended to protect health and place restrictions on selling Egyptian hospitals to foreigners

"The government is required to announce the actuarial study of the cost of health insurance, publish the official draft of the Health Insurance law, and place a law for medical liability," are the most important recommendations

As part of  " The Universal Periodic Review as a tool to enhance public policy during the transitional period",  project efforts' to adopt new policies in line with international human rights standards based on the Universal Periodic Review in 2014, Maat  for Peace, Development and Human Rights held the second round table of the project  to discuss the draft law "The comprehensive social health insurance"

Where "The Policy Analysis and Human Rights Unit", affiliated to the project, developed a set of key principles and provisions of the proposed "comprehensive social health insurance system Law" based on previous drafts that are discussed and modified since 2002.

The background paper included a range of themes related to the general provisions of the comprehensive social health insurance system, the structure of the system administration, the Hospital Authority , health care, funding sources and sanctions.

The participants of the round table were a number of MPs , university professors, representatives of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, the National Council for Childhood and motherhood, the National Population Council, National Council for Human Rights, the Supreme Council of Universities,  and representatives of political parties and civil society organizations.

The Participants stressed  that the  health insurance should be interdependent  and inclusive for all diseases and all citizens, with emphasizing  on the importance of having economical and legislative study of the proposed law before submitting it  to parliament, also the participants supported  the health insurance to be an independent body affiliated to the Presidency and a non-profit organization without creating profitable entities affiliated to the body  to avoid turning the free service to  paid service .

The participants suggested linking the  citizens by an electronic  network  in order to verify the sources of income and to ensure the full  payment of citizens of their stakes in the health insurance contributions, as well as emphasizing  on prohibiting the closing or selling of the current government hospitals, the importance of developing a plan to re-consider the authorization of hospitals to avoid dealing with investment hospitals and the need to set limits on selling hospitals for foreigners, the participants  also suggested the possibility of collecting the revenues for the body from the Auction of State Lands, mobile companies, private  and investment companies which are exempt from  7% of the taxes, and special funds. As recommended by the round table below:

1. Demanding  the government to  announce the actuarial study  which was previously prepared about  the cost of health insurance.
2.  Announcing the official draft of the Health Insurance law which has developed by the Committee.
3. Connecting the citizens with an electronic department and giving the power of entering the relevant accounts to the state  to ensure the sources of income.
4. Holding training courses for doctors to deal with patients in emergency.
5. Speeding the authorization of the government hospitals in order to avoid buying the service from investment  hospitals.
6. Deciding a law for medical responsibility.

It is worth mentioning that the project, which was launched in January 2016 and lasts for two years, funded by the  European Union seeks to strengthen the role of the Universal Periodic Review to enhance public policies and reform human rights in Egypt through the involvement of civil society organizations, activists and  media figures effectively in  observing ,  calling for  essential reforms  for Human Rights, and adopting new policies in line with international human rights standards based on the Universal Periodic Review in 2014.
More updated news about the activities of the project are available on the following link: www.fb.com/UPR.Egypt2016/