LEGISLATION WATCH- Did the government really issue the executive regulations to the Universal Healthcare Act? The Ismail Cabinet has approved the executive regulations of the Universal Healthcare Act and issued them yesterday, Health Minister Ahmed Rady reportedly told the House Budget Committee hearings on Saturday. While we had been expecting the Ismail Cabinet to announce they had approved the new regs last week, no such announcement was made and it the document does not yet appear to have been printed in the Official Gazette.

Role of private sector did not appear to be defined by previous leak of regs: Contrary to previous government statements, the role of the private healthcare and insurance system do not appear to be mentioned in a copy of the regs leaked last month by Al Ahram. Vice Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait had said that the role of the private sector would be clarified in the executive regulations. Instead, the regs appear to focus on the roles, jurisdictions and functions of the new healthcare regulators and how the system itself would be operated.