Healthcare in Iraq needs $6.84B in emergency funding

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq's Health Ministry needs at least nine trillion dinars ($6.84 billion) to cover debts and contracts and secure medicines and medical supplies, MP Noor Adel, a member of parliament's Health and Environment Committee, told Shafaq News on Tuesday.

The requested amount is nearly twice the Health Ministry’s entire 2025 spending of about 4.8 trillion dinars ($3.7 billion), according to a budget monitoring report. Healthcare accounted for roughly 2.4% of Iraq’s 200-trillion-dinar ($154 billion) federal budget, equivalent to about $78 per person for a population of 47.5 million, based on United Nations data.

Financial pressures were already evident in July, when Health Minister Abdul Hussein Al-Musawi warned of a “liquidity catastrophe” that had forced the government to prioritize salaries. Parliamentary health official Adila Hamoud similarly cautioned that prolonged fiscal strain could deepen the crisis.

Demand for medical services has also grown with Iraq’s population, while damage from the war against ISIS continues to constrain capacity in some areas. Health and Environment Committee member Shahad Al-Hamdani told Shafaq News in July that more hospitals and primary healthcare centers were needed, particularly in Nineveh, where several major facilities were destroyed during the conflict and have yet to be fully replaced.

Plans to expand capacity include 10 new hospitals scheduled to open in Baghdad and other provinces over the next six months, Al-Musawi said on Sunday. The facilities will range from 100 to 490 beds.

Read more: Iraq’s healthcare system nears collapse: Doctors leave, hospitals overflow