UAE Mandatory Health Insurance Schemes
A practical guide to mandatory health-insurance requirements in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the five Northern Emirates covered by the federal worker scheme.
Important: “Mandatory in the UAE” does not mean that every resident uses one identical federal insurance plan. The obligation depends on the emirate, residency/work category, employer or sponsor arrangement, and the applicable rules.
The key 2026 distinction
There is no single insurance product or single compliance rule that applies identically to every UAE resident.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi have their own mandatory health-insurance frameworks. From 1 January 2025, the federal Basic Health Insurance Scheme also made health insurance a residence-permit prerequisite for affected private-sector employees and domestic workers in Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.
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Who is responsible for the insurance?
| Location / category | Main responsible party | Important distinction |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai | Employer for employees; sponsor for sponsored persons without employer coverage | Employer and sponsor obligations are defined under Dubai legislation and are not interchangeable. |
| Abu Dhabi | Employer and/or sponsor according to the insured person’s legal status | The Abu Dhabi framework includes the employee’s wife and three children under 18 in the employer’s statutory family coverage obligation, subject to applicable provisions and exemptions. |
| Sharjah, Ajman, UAQ, RAK & Fujairah | Employer for covered private-sector workers and domestic-worker employer for covered domestic workers | The federal 2025 worker scheme is not a blanket statement that every resident buys the same AED 320 package. |
Select the applicable framework
Dubai Health Authority / Dubai Health Insurance Corporation
Dubai Law No. 11 of 2013 and its implementing framework establish mandatory health insurance responsibilities in Dubai.
| Topic | Current rule / practical meaning |
|---|---|
| Who is covered? | Employers enrol employees. Sponsors enrol sponsored persons who do not have coverage through an employer. |
| Employer obligation | The employer must enrol employees, bear the employee enrolment cost, keep coverage valid during employment, and provide the insurance policy when residence permits are issued or renewed. |
| Dependent / sponsor rule | A sponsor is responsible for sponsored persons who are not covered by an employer. The obligation is not limited to a universal list of “spouse and children”; it follows the sponsorship and coverage framework. |
| Penalty / enforcement | AED 500 per month of delay for failure by an employer or sponsor to enrol a required beneficiary, under Executive Council Resolution No. 7 of 2016. A part of a month is rounded up as a full month. |
| Practical warning | Dubai is an emirate-specific mandatory scheme. Do not assume that a Dubai EBP/basic package is the same product as the federal AED 320 worker package used in other emirates. |
Federal Basic Health Insurance Scheme
MoHRE introduced the federal basic package for private-sector employees and domestic workers in the five Northern Emirates where the worker insurance framework was extended from 1 January 2025.
- Published basic package price: AED 320 per year.
- The policy is used as a residence-permit issuance or renewal prerequisite for the affected worker categories.
- The package is generally for covered workers, not an automatic UAE-wide family policy.
- MoHRE states that employers can also use other approved insurance products instead of the published basic package.
- The official package describes 20% inpatient co-payment and 25% outpatient co-payment, with specified visit and annual caps.
Dubai EBP / Basic Coverage
Dubai’s mandatory scheme uses a Basic Coverage framework. Current DHA/DHIC published material identifies the Essential Benefit Plan (EBP) and lists multiple authorised insurers and prices. The exact premium depends on the insurer/product and should not be treated as one fixed legal fee.
- Current DHA-published insurer table contains basic-plan prices ranging from AED 525 to AED 750 among the listed products.
- Published annual aggregate claims limit: AED 150,000.
- Published inpatient co-payment: 20%, with a maximum of AED 500 payable per relevant admission and AED 1,000 annual co-payment cap for that benefit.
- Published medication annual limit: AED 1,500including the applicable 30% co-payment.
- Maternity, pre-authorisation, referral, network and pre-existing-condition rules must be read with the current policy/product wording.
Understanding the major differences
Emirate-level system
Employer and sponsor duties are set by Dubai legislation. Dubai’s published fine framework is separate from the federal worker package used in the other five emirates.
Emirate-level family framework
Abu Dhabi’s legislation has specific employer and sponsor responsibilities and a published AED 300 monthly penalty for each person without the required subscription.
Worker-focused extension
The 1 January 2025 federal extension covers private-sector employees and domestic workers in Sharjah, Ajman, UAQ, RAK and Fujairah. It should not be described as identical to the Dubai or Abu Dhabi systems.
Do not confuse these figures
AED 320 is the published federal basic-package price for the worker scheme. It is not the universal UAE health insurance premium.
AED 525–750 reflects the range of prices currently displayed by DHA for listed Dubai basic-plan products. It is not a single mandatory government-set premium for every Dubai resident.
AED 500/month in Dubai and AED 300/month in Abu Dhabi are penalty amounts for non-compliance under their respective frameworks, not insurance premiums.
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