The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health and Ministry of Social Affairs announced plans on Monday to provide health insurance to up to 45,000 poor families in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Minister of Health Jawad Awwad and Minister of Social Affairs Shawqi al-Ayassa said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on the plans.
Awwad said that the health insurance would cover 100 percent of medical treatment for 32,000 families, and 95 percent for 13,000 families.
Al-Ayassa added that the insurance would also go toward non-Palestinian families living in the occupied Palestinian territory "provided that they have been residents in Palestine for more than five years, and are in a very bad financial situation."
The two ministries will reportedly share information using an online platform as they begin to identify eligible families for the insurance.
It was not clear whether the health insurance would go toward families in the Gaza Strip, where government ministries are run by the coastal enclave's de facto leaders Hamas.
The occupied Palestinian territory has faced a number of crises in the health sector over the last year.
Gaza's health sector came under severe strain during last summer's Israeli offensive, with both hospitals and health centers damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces.
In the occupied West Bank, the PA struggled to subsidize hospitals earlier this year after the Israeli government withheld hundreds of millions of dollars worth of taxes it collects on the PA's behalf.
The crisis brought private hospitals across the territory to the verge of collapse.
