Angola: Health System Framework Law

Angola has a new Health System Framework Law – Lei de Bases n.º 2/26, of 30 October 2026

The law modernises the legal foundation of the health sector around one stated goal: the phased achievement of universal health coverage. It sets the principles for how the Health System is organised, financed, regulated, evaluated and supervised, and leaves most operational detail to implementing regulations.

Key principles

1. Universal access, delivered progressively. Everyone has the right to medical and health care, without discrimination. The State is primarily responsible for it, but realization is expressly progressive and tied to available human, technical and financial resources.
2. Emergency care with no conditions attached. Any person must receive immediate emergency care at any facility — public, private or other. Care cannot be refused or delayed for lack of payment, nationality, documentation or any other administrative condition.
3. Financial protection with co-payments. Care is provided in three ways: free, co-paid or fully paid. Free care covers, among others, emergencies, referred urgent care, primary care, childhood, maternity, old age, incapacity for work, vulnerable groups and epidemic diseases. Co-payments are allowed to moderate demand and sustain the National Health Service (SNS), but must follow ability to pay and can never block access to necessary care. Amounts and exemptions will be set by regulation.
4. A central, tiered National Health Service. The SNS is the backbone of the system and is to be universal and tendentially free. Access is hierarchical: primary care first, then secondary (general hospitals) and tertiary (specialised) care through a formal referral and counter-referral mechanism. Foreign nationals benefit on a reciprocity basis or against payment.
5. A complementary, regulated private sector. Private providers, with or without profit, are supported as complements to the SNS. The State may contract them where the SNS lacks capacity, and contracted care follows SNS rules.
6. Predominantly public, sustainable financing. Funding comes mainly from the State Budget, complemented by social or private health insurance, international cooperation and direct user payments. The stated aim is to progressively reduce out-of-pocket payments for essential care, with allocations based on objective demographic, epidemiological and performance indicators.
7. Strong patient rights. The law codifies rights to free and informed consent, choice of provider, access to one’s own health information, confidentiality and data protection, complaints and compensation for harm, and accompaniment by a family member or caregiver. Patients also have duties, including responsible use of services and paying co-payments due.
8. Modern governance and data. The State must regulate digital health, artificial intelligence and genomics, and run a National Health Information System. Health data must flow with interoperability and traceability, under international data-protection standards. Performance must be reported publicly at least once a year.
9. Public health and “One Health”. Human, animal and environmental health are treated as linked. The State gains express powers over joint surveillance, outbreak response and sanitary controls on imported animals and plants, and may adopt extraordinary, temporary public-health measures.