JEDDAH, 21 August 2004 — Several expatriate workers have urged the authorities to speed up implementation of the cooperative health insurance scheme that has been in limbo for two years.

The workers noted that ever since the new health insurance law was announced two years ago, government hospitals have stopped providing health services to expatriates and their families.

According to Al-Watan Arabic daily they urged government hospitals to provide them with health services until the new law is implemented. “At present we have to approach private hospitals and clinics for the service and pay huge amounts,” they told the paper.

Many expatriates interviewed by the daily complained that their employers were not providing them with health insurance. “The Passport Department is not insisting on employers to produce documents showing health insurance coverage for the issuance or renewal of iqamas,” they said.

Muhammad Abunnaja, an Egyptian working in the Kingdom for 20 years who stays here with his family, said government hospitals had rejected their requests for medical service on ground that all expatriates should subscribe to the cooperative insurance scheme.

Ahmed, a Syrian engineer who stays in Riyadh with his family, said he was facing a big problem meeting his family’s medical expenses. Sadik Muhammad, a Sudanese, said it would be difficult for many expatriates receiving low salaries to pay their medical bills.

Suleiman Muhammad, a Turk, said many expatriates had to leave the Kingdom for medical treatment abroad. “The Ministry of Health was talking about implementing the scheme. But nothing has happened for the last two years and this has increased the suffering of expatriates,” he said.

The new scheme covers medical checkup, medicine, preventive measures such as vaccination, mother and child care, laboratory and X-ray tests, surgical operations and in-patient services.

An employer who fails to pay insurance premium for his workers, must pay fines worth not more than the annual premium and will be barred from recruitment either temporarily or permanently, the law says.

If an insurance company fails to fulfill the terms of the scheme, it will be asked to pay compensations for the damages caused by the violation and a fine of not more than SR5,000 for each individual sufferer.

According to the draft regulations approved by the Cabinet, the employers will pay nearly 90 percent of the premium, while employees will bear only 10 percent or less.

Most insurance companies, hospitals and medical centers in the Kingdom have agreed to the draft norms and guidelines of the scheme. “The new regulations will solve the problems arising from the absence of uniform procedures in the services offered by various companies and hospitals in the insurance sector,” says Saleh Naser Al-Omair, director general of the National Company for Cooperative Insurance.

The draft regulations of the cooperative health insurance will be applied on all expatriate workers and their families in three phases.

In the first phase, the companies that employ 500 or more expatriate employees will implement the cooperative insurance scheme for their expatriate staff.

In the second phase, the scheme will be applied to the expatriate employees in companies employing more than 100 foreigners, while in the third stage it will be implemented by all companies and for all domestic workers.

Saudi employees will come under the scheme only three years after it has been fully implemented for expatriates.