Employment & HR
Health insurance obligations for employers
Mandatory nationwide since 1 January 2025, when the northern emirates joined Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The basic package starts around AED 320 a year, and residence renewal now depends on it.
The entitlement
What the law gives, regardless of contract.
Employers must provide health insurance for their employees. Dubai and Abu Dhabi have required it for years under their own schemes; from 1 January 2025 the obligation extended to Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah as a condition of issuing or renewing residence permits. A basic package was introduced for the northern emirates starting from around AED 320 a year excluding VAT and ICP fees, covering individuals aged one to sixty-four with no waiting period for chronic conditions, and claims cover up to AED 150,000.
The practical significance of the 2025 change is the linkage to residence. Insurance is not merely an obligation with a penalty attached; it is a condition of the visa being issued or renewed, which means a lapse stops the immigration process rather than generating a fine to be settled later. For employers in the northern emirates this converted a discretionary benefit into a gating item on every hire and every renewal. Sponsors of dependants carry the same obligation for family members, and for elderly sponsored parents the premium is substantially higher and is the largest recurring cost of that sponsorship.
The numbers
- Dubai and Abu Dhabi
- Mandatory under their own schemes
- Northern emirates
- Mandatory from 1 January 2025
- Basic package
- From around AED 320/year excluding VAT and ICP fees
- Coverage
- Ages 1–64, no waiting period for chronic conditions
- Claims limit
- Up to AED 150,000 on the basic package
- Effect
- A condition of issuing and renewing residence permits
What it costs
In practice
How this is actually administered.
- Confirm which scheme appliesDubai's, Abu Dhabi's, or the northern emirates arrangement. They differ in administration and minimum cover.
- Arrange cover before the visa applicationIt gates issuance and renewal, so an uninsured employee is an immigration problem rather than a compliance one.
- Budget for dependants separatelySponsors carry the obligation for family members, and elderly parents are the expensive case.
- Diarise renewals against the visa datesA policy lapsing between visa renewals leaves a gap that surfaces at the next transaction.
- Check the basic package is actually adequateIt satisfies the requirement. Whether it meets your staff's expectations is a separate question.
Related
Questions
Yes, nationwide. Dubai and Abu Dhabi have required it for years, and the northern emirates joined on 1 January 2025.
The northern emirates basic package starts from around AED 320 a year excluding VAT and ICP fees, with claims cover up to AED 150,000.
The employer. For dependants, the sponsoring individual.
Residence issuance and renewal are conditional on valid cover, so a lapse blocks the immigration transaction.
One question
How many people are on the payroll?
Then the order matters. Establishment card, then quota, then work permit, then entry permit, then medical, Emirates ID and contract registration. Skipping ahead to a signed offer letter before the quota exists is the usual way a start date slips by six weeks.
The first hire, in orderOr just ask usThis is the size where informal arrangements start costing money — salaries paid partly outside WPS, leave that was never tracked, gratuity nobody has accrued for. None of it is hard to fix now and all of it is expensive to fix at a MOHRE hearing.
What you are accruing without knowingOr just ask usThen Emiratisation quotas, WPS timing, ILOE subscriptions and health insurance renewals are running on separate calendars, and the penalty for each is levied per employee. Consolidating those dates is usually worth more than any single piece of advice.
What gets inspectedOr just ask us