Challenges Facing Health Expenditure in Egypt

This report presents the proceedings of a roundtable discussion organized by the Health and Human Rights Program of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) for a group of public-health policy experts to give them the opportunity to exchange views on public and total health expenditure, and its impact on health systems and citizens’ health. Participants explored ways of improving the status quo and guaranteeing citizens’ right to integrated, humane health care. The roundtable featured two primary speakers: Abd al-Fattah al-Gebali, the Head of the Economic Research Unit at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies and a former consultant for the finance minister, examined public spending on health care, while Dr. Alaa Ghanaam, the director of the EIPR’s Health and Human Rights Program and the former director-general of policies and strategies in the Health Ministry’s Health Sector Reform Program, examined total health expenditure as reflected in Egypt’s National Health Accounts.