All Dubai residents must have health insurance by June – DHA

All Dubai residents will need to have mandatory health insurance by the end of June, the Dubai Health Authority has said.

The DHA is currently in the third and final phase of implementing the compulsory heath insurance ‘ISAHD’ scheme, which was introduced in January 2014.

The current phase focuses on companies with less than 100 employees – including all spouses, dependents and domestic workers.

DHA’s director of Public Health Funding Haidar Al Yousuf said that the scheme is proceeding as per the planned framework. So far 75 per cent of Dubai expatriates have been insured under it.

“This means we have 25 per cent left to cover by June. We hope to have close to 100 per cent of Dubai expatriates covered by the insurance by the end of next month,” he said.

Linking the health insurance scheme to visa issuance and renewal has helped the implementation of the process, he added.

Al Yousuf also warned that companies that do not insure their employees before the end of June 2016 will face strict penalties. Violators face fines of between Dhs 500 and Dhs 150,000 while employers who repeat the offence could face fines of up to Dhs 500,000.

Companies can get insurance packages from the 46 health insurers approved by the DHA, including nine companies that provide the essential benefits package, Al Yousuf said.

He also stressed that many insurers now provide affordable packages to employers, sponsors and individuals.

The DHA completed the first phase of the scheme in 2014, which included companies with more than 1,000 employees.

The second phase included companies with 100 to 999 employees and this was undertaken in 2015.