New health fees on expats, visitors: Kuwait

New health fees on expats, visitors: Kuwait

The Ministry of Health has decided to impose new fees on expatriates and visitors and decision issued by the Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmed Al-Awadi, details these fees, however, some category of the people who are being treated as Kuwaitis will not be affected by the decision, reports Al-Anba daily. The Ministry of Health said, in the statement, that the fees do not include Kuwaiti patients, emergency or critical cases, cancer cases, children of non-Kuwaiti patients, or other humanitarian cases, and are limited to specific categories such as patients of non-emergency and pre-scheduled operations for non-citizens.

This is within the framework of preserving the national strategic stock of blood and its derivatives. The decision imposes new fees on some health services offered by government hospitals and clinics for expatriates registered in the health insurance system and receive services from the Blood Transfusion Services Department which boasts of 37 laboratories.

The daily said the fees range between half a dinar and 15 dinars for residents and for visitors it starts from 5 dinars and goes up to 70 dinars. The decision also set the fees for blood bag exchange services at 20 dinars per bag for the resident and 40 dinars for the