Health Insurance in 2017 from KD 50 Per Year to KD 130 – Domestic Workers to Undergo Medical Test Every Time Renew their Residency

KUWAIT CITY, The Board member and Chief Executive Officer of Health Insurance Hospitals Company Dr Ahmad Al- Saleh said the ‘DHAMAN’ project will be carried out in two phases; the first phase will begin during the first quarter of 2017 in primary healthcare centers and the second phase will begin by end of 2019, reports Al- Seyassah daily.

Dr Al-Saleh affirmed that the services offered through ‘DHAMAN’ will be exclusively for expatriates working in the private sector, indicating, “The total number of expatriates who will benefit from this project will be about 2 million excluding those categorized as housemaids”.

He stressed that the implementation of health insurance for expatriates will lead to increase in health insurance charges from the current cost of KD 50 per year to KD 130, insisting that this cost does not reflect the actual cost of the health services to be offered to expatriates.

Meanwhile, Assistant Undersecretary for Private Sector Health Services Dr Mohammad Al-Khashti affirmed the keenness of Ministry of Health to encourage the private health sector and facilitate procedures related to issuance of necessary licenses for medical centers that provide health services as well as adopt partnership initiation with the private sector in this regard.

He revealed that the Health Insurance Hospitals Company for expatriates (DHAMAN) will soon build three hospitals in three governorates — Jahra, Farwaniya and Ahmadi based on its plan to offer health services to expatriates through a total of 15 healthcare centers.

Dr Al-Khashti explained that Ministry of Health is striving to increase the bed capacity in both government and private hospitals by the beginning of 2,020 to 15,000 from its current capacity of 7,000 in the government hospitals and 1,000 in private hospitals.

Domestic
In other news the Ministry of Health recently issued a decision requiring domestic workers (Article 20 visa) of certain nationalities to undergo medical test every time they renew their residency, whether they left the country or not.

In a press statement signed by Head of Ports and Borders Health Department Dr Sami Al-Nasser, the ministry enumerated the countries of origin of domestic workers covered by the decision as follows: India, Philippines, Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Senegal, Central Africa, Madagascar, Nepal, Uganda, R. Congo, Niger, Angola, Chad, Eritrea, Sudan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, South Africa, Djibouti, Ghana, Gambia, D.R. Congo, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Myanmar and Somalia.

(Source: ArabTimesOnline.com)