The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) says that Afghanistan can afford pay five percent of an estimated 2.5 billion USD which the county pays every year in return for receiving health services.
Speaking at press conference held today, Tuesday, December 15, Abdul Qadeer, the acting deputy minister for administrative and financial affairs at the MoPH, said that people pay 75 percent of health costs while donor organizations pay 20 percent of it.
Mr. Qadeer said that the MoPH will undertake a new policy to financially sustain Afghan public health system without financial support of the donor organizations. He said public health centers will charge every patient with fee and undertake health insurance policy in the future.
According to MoPH, the Afghan ministry of finance has collected at least 187 million afghanis over the last two years from public health centers that charged patients with a small amount of fee.
Afghanistan’s health infrastructure is poor, with many people in the rural areas do not have access to basic health care.
