The Minister of Public Health submits a comprehensive health coverage plan to the Cabinet || Newspapers (Arabic)

The Minister of Public Health, Ali Hassan Khalil, declared during the launch of the medicines program for patients with chronic illnesses, that he has submitted a preliminary program for comprehensive heath coverage for all Lebanese who do not benefit from any other form of health care coverage.  The Minister's program proposes the transformation of the Ministry's decentralized primary health care centers into referral centers to hospital thus upgrading present health care services taking into consideration both cost and quality considerations.
The Minister added that his Ministry is also working on addressing the challenges posed by non-communicable diseases which are the main cause of mortality worldwide.  In this vein, he also indicated that the program catering to patients with chronic illnesses is being implemented through 414 dispensaries.  The process also involves assessing the reliability of existing dispensaries and widening the scope of beneficiaries as well as partners and allies.  The Minister also indicated that the Ministry has made headways during the past year in increasing the budget of the chronic illnesses program.  His plans for 2013 are to increase the outreach to beneficiaries and the number of available chronic care drugs to include 14 chronic illnesses.  Five new chronic care drugs will be added to the existing list of 63drugs already used by beneficiaries from the program.

Original text in Arabic: Annahar