Compulsory health insurance soon

The introduction of mandatory health insurance for all residents in Dubai is in its final phase, a senior official of Dubai Health Authority (DHA) indicated on Thursday at a meeting to announce new initiatives in line with Dubai Health Strategy 2011-2013. The implementation of the health insurance is linked to various socio-economic factors such as ensuring the entire population with minimum coverage at reasonable costs, guaranteeing the healthcare services and infrastructure capacity, safeguarding the system from all abuses and fraudulence, and empowering the financial base with sufficient flow of funds. Dr Haider Al Yousuf, Director of Health Funding at the DHA, said that compulsory health coverage for all would be announced very soon in the Emirate in line with federal regulations in this regard. But the DHA does not want the health insurance to “impose a heavy financial burden on private sector companies.” “The funding system is being developed to meet the needs of future Dubai and the different variables, which would be visible after the implementation of the mandatory health insurance.” he added. “The DHA recently introduced e-claims system for Enaya health insurance, which covers 100,000 government employees. This will be applied for all insurance claims, once the mandatory health insurance is implemented,” Dr Al Yousuf noted. “However, realisation of the mandatory health coverage required ensuring the clinical capacity of the emirate,” says Dr Awatif Abuhaliga, Acting Director of Policy and Strategy Department at the DHA. “The DHA is currently conducting a survey to identify the capacity of each health facility in both private and public sectors, whether they are sufficient to accommodate the traffic of patients and increased requirement of services after the health coverage is mandated,” she pointed out. Dr Awatif elaborated, “Currently, the number of beds and level of service match the requirement in the Emirate. Once the compulsory insurance is introduced, the demand will shoot up as witnessed in Abu Dhabi after implementing the mandatory health coverage. The present rate, an average one visit per year by a resident for primary health services, will increase to three, once the healthcare expenses are covered for all the residents.” According to her, 70 per cent of the expatriates living the Emirate are with limited financial access. So, the DHA wants the entire residents to be covered under the health insurance mechanism. “Each health facility in the Emirate will be covered in the clinical capacity survey in terms of collecting data on their efficiency and facilities to provide services to the population after the implementation of mandatory health insurance,” said Dr Meenu Mehak Soni, Policy and Planning Specialist at the DHA. “The survey for a detailed data is intended to create a specific ratio of Dubai population and the services provided at health facilities. The supply of quality services has to match with the demand. The survey will help rectify any oversupply or under supply of the services. The results after analyzing the data will be announced in six months,” she concluded.