43. Hamed, O. and Al-Botmeh, S. The Role of Insurance in Health Care Delivery. In "The Workplace as a Source of Pension Benefits and Health Insurance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip". Ramallah: MAS, 1997: 23-32.
In Arabic and English.

This chapter on health insurance explains the main features of the government health insurance (GHI) and private insurance (PHI) systems in place in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. An analysis is also provided of insurance coverage through the work place based on data collected from the public sector, the private sector and NGOs. All employees of PNA ministries are covered by GHI, while only 12.7% of the 876 private firms surveyed by MAS provide health insurance coverage for their employees. Health insurance coverage in Jerusalem is greater among beneficiaries employed in both the private and NGO sector. The authors provide a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of each system. They conclude that "establishing a universal health insurance system in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is a challenging task because of high start-up costs and the difficulty of collecting contributions from the unemployed and workers in the informal sector".