DOHA: Concerned by rising obesity, Qatar is taking a close look at the possibility of including anti-obesity awareness studies in the school curriculum.
The National Health Strategy is taking the issue of obesity in the country very seriously and a committee has been set up to mull ways to prevent obesity.
The panel is coordinating with sectors like education, sports sector (National Olympic Committee) and health to curb the menace.
“Plans are also afoot to make anti-obesity awareness studies a part of school curriculum,” said Dr Faleh Mohamed Hussain Ali, Assistant Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Health.
He is also executive officer of the National Health Insurance Company (NHIC) that is implementing the mandatory national health insurance scheme.
Ali reiterated that employers will pay the premiums for the mandatory medical insurance of their expatriate workers while the NHIC, which is 100 percent state-owned, will pay it for nationals.
As for domestic workers, the official said that the authorities were studying as to what extent the government can subsidise it for the households that employ them. “Recommendations about the subsidy are awaited.”
Ali was taking part in Al Sharq’s Ramadan tent recently. He said three hospitals — one of them with 120 beds — and five health centres exclusively devoted to labourers were being built and expected to be ready in two years.
They will be located in the Industrial Area, Ras Laffan Industrial City and Messaeed.
He said the Cabinet was amending the law to ensure that all health sector workers are brought within a single umbrella.
The first phase of the insurance scheme launched for Qatari women aged 12 and above yesterday is a learning phase, he said.
This phase covers only women’s ailments and not other diseases.
The office that is implementing and monitoring this phase is being called ‘Experience House’ and has 12 employees. The idea is to learn and incorporate changes and make the insurance system more effective.
The five phases of the insurance scheme’s implementation will end in 2015 and labourers will be brought within its ambit in the last phase.
He said that all Qatari nationals will be covered under the scheme by the first quarter of next year. After that, the next phase will begin and expatriate workers in skilled jobs will be covered.
Visitors coming here will need to buy health insurance for the period of their stay in Qatar.
As for GCC nationals, they could avail healthcare services at the primary health centres “as per the law”. Talking of the differences between private health insurance and the national health insurance scheme, he said while the former was profiting-making, the latter was not-for-profit.
The Peninsula
