Social health insurance reform in Egypt: Implementation challenges and the way forward

The Government of Egypt aims to achieve health equity, or social justice in health care, by reorganizing the health system through financial protection, the expansion of services to all, better quality of services, and also greater accountability and monitoring of results and governance. Two of the reform's priorities are to increase financial protection and ensure efficiency in the provision of services, and mobilize resources ensuring financial sustainability. Egypt only spends 5.1 percent of its GDP towards health care, while out-of-pocket expenditures is high (69.7 percent of the total health expenditures). Article 18 of the Constitution sets a target of 3 percent of the GDP, demanding a shift in resource mobilization and improving the effectiveness of the health system to deliver services.