Expats’ compulsory medical coverage postponed

By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business ReporterThe National Health Insurance Company (NHIC) has postponed the implementation of comprehensive compulsory medical insurance coverage for all expatriates, which was supposed to be in place this year."The stage (for the implementation of Seha to expatriates as well) has been slightly postponed," NHIC acting CEO Dr Faleh Mohamed Hussain Ali told the media Wednesday on the sidelines of a function to launch "Be Our Eyes" campaign, through which it sought the support of general public in reporting suspected frauds and abuse in the health insurance.Asked about the reason for the postponement of Seha to expatriates, the senior official said NHIC preferred to wait as there was a need for further studies and hoped that it could well be implemented before the end of 2016.As part of the Qatar National Vision 2030, the National Health Strategy identified the need for high quality, affordable healthcare as essential to ensure a healthy population.The Health Insurance Law Number 7 of 2013 was approved to commence the implementation of compulsory health insurance in a phased manner, initially targeting Qatari nationals.The beneficiaries of the health insurance scheme will be able to obtain services from both public and private health care providers. The final stage will cover the blue-collar non-nationals for all services. They will have access to HMC, expanded private providers as well as three new single male labourers’ hospitals being built.Article 18 of the Health Insurance Law prohibits employers and sponsors from recovering any health insurance premiums from employees (and their families) or sponsored persons, respectively.NHIC has been formed to manage the basic mandatory national social health insurance scheme across Qatar, which will ensure that the mechanism to fund essential quality healthcare services is available to everyone in the country.The premiums for Qatari nationals, non-Qatari women married to Qatari men, and the children of Qatari women married to non-Qataris, will be paid by the government, while the premiums of other residents, their spouses, and first three children must be paid by their employer.Some details of the mandatory Seha cover are yet to be finalised and this may be holding back employers from making plan design changes in readiness for the new regulations, according to Mercer, a global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement and investments.However, as things stand, it will be likely that most employers, certainly the majority of multinationals will have to make changes to their current arrangements in order to be compliant, it had said.The Gulf Cooperation Council healthcare market is projected to grow annually at 12% to nearly $70bn by 2018 from an estimated almost $40bn in 2013, according to estimates.