Health insurance in Dubai and Abu Dhabi: the rules

Two emirates, two laws

Dubai and Abu Dhabi each have their own health insurance law, and both make cover compulsory. If you live in one and work in the other, ask your employer which emirate’s rules apply to you.

Dubai

Dubai’s Health Insurance Law, Law No. 11 of 2013, requires all nationals and residents, dependants included, to have insurance cover for emergency and curative healthcare. The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) calls the Essential Benefits Plan, or EBP, the minimal level of cover residents must meet or exceed (DHA policy DHA/DHI/HE/PP/010, issued 24 November 2020).

Key points of that policy:

• New policies. Every new policy issued from 1 January 2015, group or individual, has to meet or exceed the EBP.
• Who must have cover in place. The policy names employers and sponsors, with dates by employer size that ran to 30 June 2016, and it includes spouses, dependants and domestic workers. A dependant is a spouse, sons under 18, unmarried daughters and elderly parents under the sponsor’s sponsorship.
• Low salaries. For employees who earn less than AED 4,000, the policy sets up “participating insurers” that market the EBP product.
• Top-up policies. A top-up adds benefits to the main policy and cannot duplicate them. You need a main policy that meets the EBP to take one out, and top-ups may only be issued where the insurer holds a Dubai health insurance permit.

Policies bought abroad

Section 8-5 of the same policy (DHA policy) deals with them. The DHA says it has no objection to residents using policies bought abroad, but residents must still hold a locally issued policy that at least covers the minimum. It adds that it has no jurisdiction to protect consumers who hold foreign policies and will not take complaints about them, and that the marketing of foreign policies in or into the emirate is prohibited (Standards Notice 04-2015 of 25 October 2015).

For you, the practical point is simple (see the DHA policy for the wording): a policy from home does not remove the need for the local minimum. For anyone who sells or recommends insurance, the marketing rule matters. ReloFinder gives no insurance advice and does not sell insurance.

Abu Dhabi

Law No. 23 of 2005 makes subscription to the health insurance scheme compulsory for non-UAE nationals and their families who reside in the emirate (Abu Dhabi Department of Health). The exempt groups include arrivals on a tourist visa, among others. The law then sets out the duties:

• the employer covers all employees and their family members, including a wife and three children under 18;
• a sponsor covers the people it sponsors who are not covered by an employer, from the date of arrival;
• a non-UAE national may not obtain a residence permit or its renewal, nor be employed, unless enrolled in the scheme.

The implementing regulation in the same document adds that a sponsor may not pass the cost of the basic policy, or any part of it, to the people on its sponsorship, and that the immigration departments must not issue or renew a residence permit unless the policy is enclosed with the application.

Penalties: an employer or sponsor who does not subscribe or renew is fined at least AED 300 for each month not covered, multiplied by the number of people involved (article 24 of Law No. 23 of 2005). Other violations carry fines of AED 5,000 to AED 20,000.

This is the document the Department of Health publishes, and the latest amending resolution on its cover dates from 2010. Check the department’s current regulation before you rely on a figure.

What this means for your move

1. If you are an employee, ask your employer for the policy certificate before you sign, and ask which plan it is and how dependants are covered.
2. If you are sponsoring family, the law puts the duty on you, as sponsor.
3. If you are self-sponsored, our research notes that you buy your own cover. We did not find an official figure for what a policy costs, so we give none.
4. If you hold a policy from home, treat it in Dubai as additional unless the insurer confirms in writing that it meets the local minimum.

The UAE government’s residence visa page lists medical insurance or a health card among the documents for the application (u.ae).

What we could not source

We did not find an official statement on the cost of a minimum policy, on the rules for freelancers and remote workers, or on the golden visa’s insurance conditions beyond a secondary source we did not use. We also did not check Sharjah or the other emirates. ReloFinder does not give insurance advice. Ask your employer, a UAE-licensed insurer or your sponsor.