Mandatory Health Insurance

Thanks to Lifecare International for those elements.

Timeline

• February 2021 - compulsory system was announced.
• November 2021 - Article in the official Gazette Law n°22.
• February 2023 - Mandatory travel insurance for visitors implemented with a panel of local Qatari companies QCB regulated Insurance Companies.
• March 2023 QFCRA regulated insurers added to the Travel Insurance panel of insurance companies.
• May/June 2023 - Circular n°1 issued, requesting insurance companies, providers, Third Party Administrators and Insurance brokers to register in involvement of mandatory insurance including payment.
• August 2023 - Estimated - we will receive the next circula, and mandatory table of benefits to be announced.
• January 2024 - Estimated - Implementation date (prediction tiered approach, Large corp / SME / individual last)

What do we know?

• 15% of Qatar expat population is currently insured.
• Mandatory healthcare is estimated to contribute to circa 2.2bn to healthcare industry.
• Company/Sponsor will be responsible for the medical insurance of their employee.
• Company/sponsor of male employee will cover employee, spouse (if not already covered) and up to 3 dependents if they sponsor the family.
• Lifecare International believes that if the employee is sponsored by the company, and the employee then in turn sponsors his spouse, then the liability for the family is with the employee, not the sponsor/company. TBC.
• Comapny/Sponsor of female employee will only cover the employee unless their spouse is not employed.
• Individual sponsor responsible for Nanny/Maid/Driver insurance.
• Minimum mandatory insurance basic plan is estimated to be between 600-1000 QR per person per year.
• Basic plan will likely have a high co-insurance, very limited restricted network.
• Hamad health system will no longer be available to expats - we are yet to see what will happen for complex high value treatments but longer term we expect Hamad to act like a private facility and charge back to insurance companies.
• Longer term: the mandatory medical insurance will be linked to QID and visa requirements linked to Government portal.
• International insurance companies will be "fronted" with a locally authorized Qatar insurance company to comply with the law. Any insurer that is not on the ground (licensed) or "fronted" will be able to sell "top-up" plans but the minimum mandatory insurance will have to be purchased along side the international policy.