Health insurance and treatment: what is covered and where to go
Health cover is the employer’s duty: Article 3 of the Cooperative Health Insurance Law in Saudi Arabia, and Article 13 in the UAE. What the policy covers, and what to do if you fall ill or are injured at work.
Falling ill in an unfamiliar country is frightening, and the fear doubles when you do not know where to go or who pays. An insurance card is not a favour from the employer, and a workplace injury is not "ordinary illness" to be treated on that card. This guide separates the two, and reads the text rather than a hospital list that will be out of date.
In Saudi Arabia: a subscription in your favour, or no iqama
The cover does not come from Article 40 of the Labour Law. That article is a fee list: recruitment, residence, the work permit and their renewal, delay fines the employer causes, occupation change, exit/re-entry, and a return ticket. The health-insurance premium is not on that list, so it cannot be deducted from your wage by analogy with those fees.
The reason is that a different statute names who pays. The Cooperative Health Insurance Law, Royal Decree M/10 — Article 3: anyone who sponsors a resident must subscribe on that resident’s behalf. The sponsor on your contract is the employer. Then the sentence that ends the argument at Jawazat: an iqama may not be issued or renewed except after a policy covering the duration of residence. Cover is a condition of your residence, and the subscription sits with whoever sponsored you — not a purchase you choose from your wage.
Article 144 of the Labour Law does not open a door for you to pay instead. It requires the employer to provide workers with preventive and therapeutic care at the levels the minister sets, having regard to what the Cooperative Health Insurance Law provides. The cooperative scheme is the day-to-day mechanism; the Labour Law confirms that care is the employer’s duty, not a favour and not a line you negotiate over who buys it.
Article 14 of the insurance law if they do not subscribe or do not pay the premiums: they are compelled to pay all premiums due, plus a fine of up to the annual subscription per person, and they may be banned from recruiting. The bill does not move onto you because you "accepted a deduction". A card delayed for months is not office routine — it is a breach that touches your residence and your treatment. Demand the policy in writing from day one.
Article 5 paragraph (b) lets the Council of Health Insurance set how the subscription is split between the beneficiary and the employer. What the Council publishes for private-sector workers is that the employer pays the premiums for the worker and the covered family. Check the Council’s site before an "insurance premium" is deducted from your wage with no explanation.
At the desk: what Article 7 covers, and what it excludes
The question at reception is not "what tier is your policy". The question is: is this treatment among the basic services the statute requires the policy to cover? Article 7 answers with a list, not with the clerk’s estimate.
The basic policy covers:
- Examination and treatment in clinics, and medicines.
- Preventive measures: vaccination, and maternity and child care.
- Laboratory and radiology tests the case requires.
- Hospital admission and treatment, including delivery and surgery.
- Treatment of diseases of the teeth and gums.
From dental care, Article 7 excludes two written items only: orthodontics, and dentures. If you are asked at the desk "is dental covered?", the answer in the article is: treatment of diseases of the teeth and gums yes. Orthodontics no. Dentures no. If you are told that dental as a whole is "only on a higher tier", ask for the exclusion to be read from the policy — a refusal wider than orthodontics and dentures is not Article 7.
Eyewear and cosmetic treatment are not in Article 7’s list. Unless the employer has expanded cover with riders (Article 8), do not assume they sit inside the floor.
Article 8 lets the employer expand cover with additional riders. The network, pre-approvals and some service limits are written in your own policy. No hospital list and no premium figure is stored here — both change. Know from the card: the insurer’s name, the policy number, and the nearest facility in the network for your housing before you need it. Treatment outside the network is usually unpaid except on the policy’s terms.
And Article 10: the employer bears the cost of your treatment in the period between the date treatment became due and the date of subscription. If you fall ill after you have arrived and the policy has not yet been issued, treatment in that gap sits with the employer, not with you — and this too is not Article 40; it is the insurance law itself.
In the UAE: medical care under the legislation in force, not one federal card
Article 13 of Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021 — paragraph 8 in the Ministry’s numbering — requires the employer to bear the costs of the worker’s medical care in accordance with the legislation in force in the State. The reason here is also not a fee list you infer: the text names the employer as the one who bears the cost. Paragraph 9: the expenses of insurances, contributions and guarantees that legislation defines. Mandatory health insurance is organised more at emirate level than as a single federal policy. No Dubai or Abu Dhabi package is copied here — packages change. Ask: where is my card, which network, and does the Emirates ID replace it? No. The ID proves residence. It is not a treatment document.
The work permit and the contract have their own guide on this site. If the passport is taken "for the paperwork", Article 13 forbids withholding your documents. Ask for a receipt. And if an insurance card exists, photograph it the day you get it — originals vanish in shared housing.
A workplace injury is not ordinary illness
The cooperative card treats illness and the clinic. A fall from scaffolding, a burn in a kitchen, or an occupational disease is a different path. Do not agree that "the clinic in the accommodation will do" and that the injury should be kept off the record.
In Saudi Arabia: Article 132 of the Labour Law says the workplace-injury chapter does not apply to establishments covered by the occupational-hazards branch of the Social Insurance Law. Most private-sector establishments are. The injury is reported and treated through GOSI, under the definition in Article 134, not on the cooperative card alone. Report immediately and on the record, be treated at a medical facility, and keep the report. The site-safety guide on this site.
In the UAE Article 37: if you suffer a workplace injury or occupational disease, the employer must bear the cost of your treatment until you recover or disability is established, as the regulation sets. If the injury keeps you from work: full wage for the duration of treatment or six months, whichever is less, then half wage for a further six months or until recovery, disability or death, whichever is sooner. Death compensation — if it occurs — is set in the same article on the basic wage. Article 38 drops compensation if it is shown you injured yourself deliberately, or the injury occurred under drink or drugs, or from a wilful breach of posted safety instructions, or wilful misconduct, or you refused without a serious reason the examination or treatment the medical authority decided. Report, and do not refuse the examination.
In an emergency, do not wait for permission
Go to the nearest emergency department immediately. Your life outranks a pre-approval. Emergency departments sort paperwork afterwards. Save the ambulance number for your country of work in your phone today — do not search for it when you cannot. Once you are stable: tell the employer in writing, keep the admission report, and call the insurer or social insurance according to what happened: illness, or a workplace injury.
What to do while you are well
- The insurer’s name, the policy number and a photo of the card in your email — in Saudi Arabia, check the Council of Health Insurance channels too.
- The nearest facility in your network for your housing, how you reach it, and whether non-emergency care needs pre-approval.
- Do not mix the cooperative card with a workplace injury: the second is GOSI in Saudi Arabia, and Articles 37 and 38 in the UAE.
- If no policy has been handed over after you arrive: demand it in writing. Articles 3 and 14 in Saudi Arabia; Article 13 in the UAE.
- If an "insurance premium" is deducted from your wage with no explanation: the reason is Article 3 of the insurance law, not Article 40 of the Labour Law. Ask, and check the Council.
- The passport and the insurance card are not the employer’s security. A receipt if they are handed over for a transaction.
This is an explanation of the Cooperative Health Insurance Law as published by the Bureau of Experts, of Articles 144, 132 and 134 of the Labour Law, and of Articles 13, 37 and 38 of Decree-Law 33 of 2021, at the time of writing. Networks, premiums and emirate packages change. Read your policy, and check with the Council or the health authority in your emirate, before you rely on a list you heard in the accommodation. This page explains who pays and where to go. It is not a substitute for the card in your wallet.
Rules and fees change and differ by country and employer. Always check with the official authorities before paying or signing anything.