For the second time, Sabeel is opening the health insurance plan to the community for registration. Individuals and organizations are able to register until April 1st. Already 500 community members and five major organizations have expressed their interest in joining. We expect the numbers to grow in the coming days.
Last September, Sabeel and the community launched a new, groundbreaking health insurance program. Previously, not all Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza had access to a high standard to health care. Sabeel has been bringing people together to solve this problem affecting the community. Churches, non-profit organizations, laypeople, and businesses have been working together, in supporting the health insurance plan.
The health insurance program provides a collective pool of money that everyone can use according to their need. Approximately USD $150,000 each month are being used out of the insurance money pool to cover the medical expenses for people with chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. Previously, many community members were not able to take medication regularly because it was too expensive. Now, they are able to take their medication on a regular basis. Everyone who wished to enroll and complied with the conditions of this health project, was accepted in the program. Based on Sabeel’s research, this is already the biggest community health insurance initiative that exists in the region. We hope that by the end of 2023 there will be around 10,000 members enrolled. This project was made possible through the support of Mennonite Central Committee MCC who are a long time partner of Sabeel. MCC supported Sabeel to research and develop an insurance policy that will be completely funded by the local community and rely on member contributions rather than on donor funding.