Reported (Asma Ali Zain) Khaleej Times

27 April 2010,

DUBAI — The Dubai Health Authority is developing other funding models to replace the earlier announced compulsory health insurance scheme for the emirate, a senior health official said.

Dr Haider Al Yousuf, Director of Health Funding at the authority said insurance models such as Daman being followed by Abu Dhabi are also under consideration.

“We are looking to developing other funding models such as Daman and others in the region to further develop the insurance model planned for Dubai,” he said while addressing the third Gulf Health Insurance Forum on Monday.

Dr Yousuf said the proposal would soon be put to the Dubai Executive Council for approval.

“We will announce an implementation timeline only after the council has reviewed the proposal,” he said. He also said the authority would soon engage with stakeholders with regard to the issue.

The earlier planned scheme that was largely employer funded was deferred in 2008 by the authority until further notice. In a statement given to Khaleej Times in January, Dr Yousuf had said that the scheme was being reviewed to make it suitable for the current financial conditions.

“Though it may be delayed, the scheme will eventually come through,” he had said.Referring to Enaya, the compulsory insurance scheme for all Dubai government employees, Dr Yousuf said the scheme was still in its early stages since it was implemented in July 2009.

“We have studied the behaviour patterns of those using Enaya and found that people are still not familiar with the concept of insurance,” he said.

The scheme currently has nearly 90,000 users. “They are still confused between insurance and free health 
services.”

While reviewing the behaviour patterns of users under the government scheme, the health authority found that it was either being under used or over used. “Utilisation is not as good as well expected it to be since users are still not using the scheme for preventive medical care to which they are entitled,” 
he explained.

“On the other hand, we have some who use the insurance card as a credit card,” he added. Dr Yousuf said that service providers were also over managing the service.

“We now have useful data to analyse trends in the region and develop the programme accordingly,” he added.

He also said that the authority will launch programmes to raise awareness and urge users to start using the benefits that they are entitled to