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The rapidly increasing population coupled with continuing
advancements in hi-tech medical technology and pharmaceutical
innovations has started to put pressure on the financial and
infrastructure capacity of the health care sector in Qatar.
Pursuant to the goals set out in the Qatar National Vision 2030,
the State of Qatar has been working to implement a social health
insurance scheme (SHIS) to provide universal health care access by
2014 in order to strengthen the health care infrastructure of the
country.
The Supreme Council of Health (SCH), the
governmental entity responsible for the development and
implementation of the SHIS, last month revealed initial details
regarding the way in which the scheme will be implemented.
Currently the draft law that will implement the SHIS is under
consideration with the Council of Ministers. Although the draft law
has not been circulated for wider consultation, several key details
have been released by the SCH local newspapers and media
statements. According to these sources, the draft law provides that
the government will pay the health insurance premiums for Qatari
nationals while employers will be responsible for the premiums of
their expatriate workers. Once the draft law has been approved and
comes into effect, the government plans to require all residents
and visitors of Qatar the country to have insurance coverage by the
end of 2014.
The SHIS will be mandatory for residents and will be linked to
the processing and granting of residence permits for expatriates.
However the position with respect to the coverage of expatriates
who are not sponsored by an employer remains unclear. In
preparation of the implementation of the draft law, the government
has initiated the establishment of the National Health Insurance
Company (NHIC) which will be wholly owned by the
SCH. The NHIC will ultimately launch and regulate the SHIS by
coordinating between insurance providers and the beneficiaries of
the SHIS. The scheme will be further supported by a third party
administrator responsible for establishing a provider network and
processing claims.
The SHIS will be rolled out through a series of five phases. On
12 April 2012 the SCH announced that the pilot programme of the
SHIS will be launched around November of this year, followed by
additional phased programme rollouts to be completed by the end of
2014. The pilot programme will initially provide cover to
approximately 75,000 Qatari women aged 15 years and above. Among
the services to be covered by the programme are maternity,
obstetrics and gynecology with more services becoming available at
a later date.
The second stage of the SHIS is planned for July 2013 and will
extend the scheme coverage to include all Qatari nationals and
provide access to primary healthcare facilities and certain private
sector participants. In October 2013 the third stage will be
implemented entitling all Qatari nationals to basic services from
all healthcare providers in Qatar. By May 2014 the fourth stage
will extend coverage of all Qatari nationals under the SHIS to all
services in the private sector and half of the services available
on an out-patient basis.
The final stage, earmarked for the end of 2014, will extend SHIS
coverage to include all residents of Qatar with the majority of
those covered eligible for the basic package of benefits of
healthcare services at both primary and secondary levels.
Whilst it is likely that there are quite a few challenges to
face before the SHIS will effectively be implemented, it appears
that Qatar is progressing the scheme at a pace that may well see
its complete implementation prior to 2015.
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The introduction of compulsory health insurance and how it is likely to be rolled out across the UAE remains a very important issue for the country as a whole.
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