Health insurance for UAE employers: Who the employer
insures, emirate by emirate.

Which health insurance rules apply in each emirate?

Every emirate now requires private employers to insure their employees. What differs is who else is covered, and since when.

Health cover is one of several duties. See UAE employee insurance for worker protection, job loss cover and work injuries, and who pays for each.

What must an employer in Dubai provide?

Dubai Law No. 11 of 2013 made health insurance compulsory in stages between 2014 and 2016, starting with the largest employers. Every employer in Dubai has to insure every employee, and the premium is the employer's cost: it cannot be recovered from salary.

Cover for an employee's spouse, children and other dependants is the responsibility of whoever sponsors their visa, which is usually the employee. Lower-paid employees are typically placed on the Essential Benefits Plan, the minimum package the Dubai Health Authority sets.

Article 10 of the law spells out the rest. The employer keeps the cover valid for the whole period of service, gives each employee a health insurance card and produces the policy when a residence permit is issued or renewed. If an employee has no cover, the employer pays for their emergency treatment. Article 23 sets fines from AED 500 to AED 150,000 for breaking the law, doubled for a repeat within a year, up to AED 500,000.

What must an employer in Abu Dhabi provide?

Abu Dhabi was first, and its rule is the widest. The employer insures the employee and, under the Department of Health's terms, generally the employee's spouse and up to three children under eighteen as well.

For an Abu Dhabi employer, a marriage or a birth changes the premium, which makes dependants a payroll and budgeting question as much as a visa one.

What changed in Sharjah and the northern emirates in 2025?

From 1 January 2025 private-sector employers in Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah have had to insure their employees too, and a residence visa is not issued or renewed without cover.

The basic package approved for the purpose costs AED 320 a year for anyone aged 1 to 64. It has co-payments: 20 per cent for inpatient treatment, up to AED 500 a visit and AED 1,000 a year, and 25 per cent for outpatient visits, up to AED 100 a visit.

The portal gives more detail on the package. A policy runs for two years, and the second year's premium can be refunded if the visa is cancelled, which is worth claiming when someone leaves early. There is no waiting period for chronic illnesses, and no co-payment on a follow-up visit for the same condition within seven days. Medicines carry a co-payment of up to 30 per cent, capped at AED 1,500 a year. Anyone over 64 completes a medical disclosure form with recent reports, and dependants can join on the same benefits and pricing. It can be bought from Dubai Insurance, an accredited insurer or the Insurance Pool's website.

Employees whose work permits were issued before 1 January 2024 and are still valid need cover when their residence permit next comes up for renewal. For a company with a mixed workforce that means the obligation is arriving one renewal date at a time rather than all at once.

What about Emirati employees?

Government schemes cover many of them, depending on the emirate. In Abu Dhabi the Thiqa programme gives full cover to UAE nationals, in Dubai the Enaya scheme covers Dubai citizens, and Sharjah extended its cover to all Sharjah citizens in January 2020.

Check each employee's scheme and ask your insurer whether a company policy is still needed, so no one is left out or insured twice.

What should HR record about each employee's policy?

The end date matters most, because a residence visa is not issued or renewed without cover.

• Insurer, policy number and plan
• Cover start and end dates
• Which dependants the policy covers, and who pays for them
• The emirate whose rules the policy was bought under
• Renewal reminders well ahead of the visa they protect