Abu Dhabi Enforce Health Insurance Cover

Insurance Articles Abu Dhabi Enforce Health Insurance Cover

Abu Dhabi Enforce Health Insurance Cover

September 28, 2011 Paul Taylor Posted in: Insurance Articles

Health officials from Abu Dhabi have reissued a warning to all residents in the Emirate to maintain an up-to-date health insurance policy or else face a stiff penalty.

At a conference held yesterday, the Health Authority Abu Dhabi (HAAD) unveiled a new media awareness campaign that aims to publicize the activation of the Health Insurance Law No. 23 of 2005 and to further educate Gulf residents about the tremendous importance of having valid health coverage in the Emirates at all times. The HAAD wants all companies and UAE nationals who have workers under their sponsorship to be aware of the national health insurance requirement as well as the new mechanisms now in place to enforce it.

Abu Dhabi’s Health Insurance Law states that active employers or sponsors in the Emirate must provide some form of health insurance to all employees and their family members, including an employee’s spouse as well as cover for three children aged 18 or lower. The law also applies to laborers at construction companies, one of the largest sources of migrant work in the region. If an employer or UAE sponsor fails to adhere to this responsibility and either does not subscribe to a basic health insurance scheme or fails to renew their policy they will be subject to a minimum fine of Dh300 (US$82) per employee, worker or dependent, per month. Consistent violation of the law could also resort in an employer’s trade license in the Emirate being revoked. Anyone who reregisters after their policy expires will be treated as a new applicant.

Speaking at the conference Monday, Marwan Al Nabulsi, Head of the Enrolment and Inspection at HAAD, told attendees that their organization was prepared to do even more to ensure that all Abu Dhabi residents and workers hold adequate health cover. The HAAD introduced a new option in January this year that extends insurance eligibility, giving employers and sponsors the ability to secure a valid insurance card for their employees for up to three years at a time. “People will know the value of having an insurance card when somebody gets sick and they go to a hospital and they will have to pay the bill. If they don’t have insurance, they have to come up with the money to pay the bill,” Al Nabulsi said.

While these health insurance requirements have been in place since the law was issued in 2005, fines for non-compliance were not enforced until the middle of last year. Speaking at the conference, Dr Jamal Mohammed Al Kaabi, Head of Customer Service and Corporate Communications at HAAD explained that the necessary infrastructure for collecting and administrating fines could only be realized by the health authority in May 2010. This was followed immediately by a mandated grace period by order of Sheikh Khalifa, which gave offenders the necessary time to adjust to the new system in place. Due to the larger than expected volume of offending claims however, more moves were soon required by the HAAD to ensure the health insurance scheme could be properly maintained and enforced. “We spent four months under that order and then we decided to establish a committee within the health authority to look into all appeals that are presented through customer service and the committee,” Dr Al Kaabi explained.

In September 2010, HAAD established the Appeal Committee for Insurance Fines as their new subsidiary tasked with reviewing all health insurance appeals in the Emirate. Individuals looking to file an objection are charged a Dh100 (US$27) appeal fee before fines can be cancelled, while employers must pay Dh2000 (US$545) to have their case heard. According to recently released HAAD statistics, these appeal fees have not deterred many people from filing a complaint. Since the health insurance requirements have come into force, the Appeal Committee for Insurance Fines has received over 42,000 appeals. Of these appeals, HAAD notes that 27,895 have come from individuals looking to cancel their fines, 6,677 have been group appeals, while 6,319 have come from small companies and 1,262 from larger companies.

Despite this considerable appeal traffic, Dr Al Kaabi was confident that considerable progress had already been made and that the new health insurance scheme was already achieving desired results. “Activating the Health Insurance list of penalties is aimed at letting the sponsors/employers provide health insurance cover to all their workers/employees and not to collect violation fees. The HAAD has decreased the percentage of violations through this and sometimes it has made exemptions in order to allow everyone easier access to health insurance,” Dr Al Kaabi said.

The number of registered health insurance complaints has already dropped this year. According to HAAD statistics, 693 formal complaints have been filed since the start of this year, compared with over 2,300 complaints through the same period in 2010. A further 64 complaints have been moved onto the courts for final resolution. As it stands now, 97 percent of all workers and residents of Abu Dhabi are insured to some degree. The HAAD hopes to achieve 100 percent compliance in the near future. Insurance penetration and density in the UAE is at the highest levels in the Gulf region, and an increase in both native and expatriate populations is expected to only improve upon this trend. Al Kaabi concluded the conference saying that his organization hopes to attain this goal not through fees and appeal courts but from a deep mutual understanding of the importance of universal health insurance coverage and adherence to the law in Abu Dhabi. “We are not looking into collecting fines, what we are doing actually is we want everybody to be in compliance with the insurance law,” Dr Al Kaabi asserted.

Organizations Mentioned

HAAD The Health Authority Abu Dhabi (HAAD) is the chief regulatory body overseeing the healthcare sector in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The HAAD is tasked with monitoring the health of the local population and the overall performance of the health system. In addition, HAAD defines an overall strategy for the health system, works to enforce standards, maintain performance targets and increase awareness of and encourage healthy living practices amongst Abu Dhabi residents.

Online Insurance Advisor