DOHA: Several ambiguities about the health insurance scheme that is being made mandatory for all in the country will soon be clarified by public health authorities as the decks are now clear for the issue of executive regulations to help enforce the health cover law.
The law was issued a few months ago and the first phase of the insurance scheme was launched last July covering 90,000 Qatari women. The executive regulations or bye-laws, which will help implement the key legislation, are expected this week.
They are likely to detail the various packages that will be available under the compulsory national health insurance scheme and the premiums to be paid.
So far healthcare providers as well as people remain confused about the kind of packages that are to be offered by the insurers and their premiums.
The Supreme Council of Health (SCH) has the draft of the executive regulation ready and is making preparations to announce them in a few days. It is understood that the regulations will be enforced immediately after they are made public.
“The regulations are ready and are expected to be issued this week,” Dr Faleh Mohammad Husain, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Company (NHIC), told Al Sharq. The NHIC is the pivotal body for implementing the scheme in which the healthcare providers and insurers also have stakes. The regulations are likely to include a chapter about the premiums and how to pay them. It will specify relations between the NHIC and health services providers. The role of the SCH and that of the NHIC is also expected to be discussed in detail in the regulations. “The precise duties and powers of the NHIC will be specified in detail in the executive regulations,” Hussain told the daily.
He reiterated that healthcare providers will be given a stake in the NHIC so the rules governing it will also be specified in detail in the bye-laws. Then, details of basic as well as advanced packages offered by the insurers will be mentioned as part of these regulations. It is to be noted that according to the insurance law, the employers of foreign workers must provide health insurance not only to them but also to their dependents — wife and three children.
Expatriates who have more than three children will need to buy health cover for the remaining ones. Some private companies this newspaper spoke to said they are waiting for the executive regulations to be out to chalk out details. “We need to know how much premium we have to pay. Based on that we will have to work out plans,” said a senior company official requesting anonymity. The Peninsula
