Ministers discuss insurance law with unions
Courtesy: Wikimedia commons
 

Minister of Social Solidarity Ahmed Hassan al-Borai and Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ayman Abou-Hadid met with members and leaders of farmers’ independent unions to discuss the first draft of the health insurance law on Monday. 

Although the law focuses on farmers, it also concerns other groups that fall outside of the national health insurance umbrella, specifically, fishermen and street vendors. 

Twenty-four union members attended the meeting, including members of the Independent Farmers Union  and of the Small Farmers’ Union. 

In the meeting, participants discussed the number of citizen-members of unions who need health coverage, the nature of the coverage (compulsory or voluntary), other family members included in the coverage, and the suggested percentage of state coverage.  

During the meeting, unionists stressed that all farmers, regardless of their tenancy status, and their spouses should be entitled to state health insurance. As for the sources of funding, they suggested including a tax escalation clause to the law, given the wealth discrepancies among them. 

Unionists also addressed wider concerns about their future and that of the Egyptian agriculture sector.  They also expressed concerns regarding their representation in the constitution, in light of their current representative, Mohamed Abdel-Qader being a remnant of the former Hosni Mubarak regime. Abdel Qader has been slammed for knowing little about farmers’ issues.  

Unionists also submitted a draft of a unified cooperative law that they think would help Egypt faced its current agricultural challenges. 

 

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