Middle East - Kuwait: Expat health insurance fees hit US$2.5 bln over 15 years
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Feb 2016
Kuwait’s Treasury has collected KWD763.5 million (US$2.5 billion), since the health insurance law took effect in 2000, requiring foreigners to pay fees for health cover. Sources said that the money has been accumulated for 15 years without being invested.
Earlier, a lawmaker asked former Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali about the steps taken for the country to benefit from the accumulated funds but no response had been given yet, reported the Arab Times.
Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti Economics Committee in the Supreme Council for Planning and Development recently proposed a two-layered alternative health plan for the three million expats residing in Kuwait, which would see their annual health insurance fees to rise to no less than KWD150 each from KWD50. The country provides free medical services to all citizens.
The Council’s two-tier plan divides foreigners in Kuwait into two groups – around two million employees in the private sector and one million expatriates who work in the public sector.
The first group of foreigners will be treated in expat-only hospitals. In 2014, the government established a shareholding company to build three 700-bed hospitals and 15 polyclinics to provide integrated medical services to foreigners in Kuwait. When the new hospitals are completed, foreigners will have to purchase the health insurance policy from the same company in order to have access to medical services at the three hospitals. Whether these expatriates will be given the choice to purchase policies from other insurance companies is not yet known.
The second class of foreigners will be treated at private medical facilities.
The recent developments come as the Cabinet reportedly assigned the Finance Ministry, Oil Ministry, Commerce Ministry, General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD), Fatwa and Legislation Department, and the Privatisation Bureau to study a recommendation made by the SCPD to withdraw subsidies for health services for expatriates.
The recommendation was made in a recent study on ways to reduce the government budget in light of the drop in oil prices.
KWD1 = US$3.29