The Insurance Regulatory Unit, which is part of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has issued an approved list of 11 companies allowed to issue health insurance policies for expatriate workers in the private sector who are aged at least 60 and hold educational qualifications up to a high school certificate.
The approved list of insurance companies comprises both conventional insurers and takaful operators. Not all of the 11 are listed insurers, although there had been suggestions for the regulator to permit only listed insurers to issue such health insurance policies.
Sources said that the eligible list is not final, because other insurance companies may apply to join the list in the future. The conditions for insurers issuing the health insurance policy require that they must be Kuwaiti shareholding companies licensed to carry out insurance business.
Annual premiums
Meanwhile, the Supreme Committee for Insurance Regulation has specified that the annual health insurance premiums to be charged to expatriate workers in Kuwait aged at least 60 is to be KWD500 ($1,654) per person, plus KWD3.5 in administrative fees.
Health insurance – with annual coverage of up to KWD10,000, including KWD500 for dental care – is mandatory for expatriates aged 60 and above, who have educational qualifications of up to high school, to renew their work permits in the country. The expats have to buy their health plans from insurers on the approved list.
The Public Authority of Manpower board headed by justice minister Jamal Al Jallawi approved the new system in January 2022, thus ending a months-long disputed ban on the employment of expatriates aged at least 60.
Exempted from the new rules are spouses and children of Kuwaiti citizens and Palestinian holders of travel documents. M