Saudi Arabia - 2nd phase of single health insurance policy starts
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Nov 2016
The Council for Cooperative Health Insurance (CCHI)has announced the start of the second phase of the implementation of the the unified health insurance policy, requiring private-sector employers to register their employees and their dependents under a single policy for mandatory health insurance.
This phase, which will become effective this month, covers companies that employ between 50 and 99 people. The first phase was implemented in July and covered companies employing at least 100 people. All private-sector employers will be covered by the programme in two more phases, for manpower strength of 25-49 and 1-24, to be implemented before April 2017.
All companies will be required to register their employees, their wives and children in the programme and pay for their insurance cover. Mr Mohammad Al-Shagdour, head of the department that coordinates CCHI and its partners, said that the system however does not oblige companies to provide health insurance to an employee’s parents and siblings, reported Saudi Gazette.
Any employer does not provide health insurance to employees will be considered in violation of the law and the CCHI will file a report to the Ministry of Labour and Social Development, which in turn will deny the employer all its services until the situation is rectified.
The CCHI will monitor the market to ensure that both the private companies and the health insurance providers are implementing the system without manipulation.
Mr Ahmad Al-Shalan, head of electronic transactions at CCHI, said that the single insurance policy document aims at combating the black market and fake health insurance policies, and providing decent health insurance coverage to the public.