Months after the formation of our new Lebanese government, Health Minister Jamil Jabak has been vowing and establishing many new effective plans and policies to enhance the medical sector in Lebanon.
The newly appointed Health Minister has recently announced that he will adopt a policy of financial rationalization. It involves reducing the medical bill and benefiting from the savings to strengthen the hospital sector in order to “ensure the health coverage of all the Lebanese people and all Lebanese territory.”
In his words, “Today, there are one million and eight hundred thousand Lebanese citizens who are not covered by any guarantee, and it’s the duty of the State to help and provide them with the necessary hospital service.”
Minister Jabak met with the Lebanese president to inform him of his set plan to improve the health sector. After the meeting, he clarified that his ministry is seeking to reduce the bill of medicines, especially in regard to blood diseases and tumors, which has been a heavy burden on Lebanon estimated at around 240 billion Lebanese Pounds annually.
He plans to make agreements with companies or countries producing the medicines, such as France or Britain, to reduce the value of the medical bill to about 40%. That is in addition to the aid Lebanon receives, which exceeds 15%, so the value of the reduction of the invoice will amount to 50%.
As for the governmental hospitals, Mr. Jabak said that “the decision was taken under the patronage of his Excellency the Lebanese President to rehabilitate governmental hospitals in order to accommodate more citizens and cover more needs.”
We really do hope that our Minister of Public Health will manage indeed to establish his new policies that are required to enhance the utilization of an effective health care system. We could hence expect a significant -and much-needed- improvement to the quality and the value of health care of every Lebanese citizen.