A proposal tabled in parliament to make the annual health insurance fee charged on expatriates equivalent to 10 percent of their salary, has been rejected by the National Assembly’s health and labor committee.
The proposal, initially tabled by former MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei and later adopted by MP Mohammad Hayef, had called on the assembly to fix the annual health insurance fee for expatriates at 10 percent of their salary, ostensibly to help low-paid workers.
At present, expatriates pay around KD50 annually in health insurance, in addition to additional charges for various medical services. According to reports, the government is planning to raise this amount to KD130 per year.
In the meantime, rapporteur of the manpower resources committee of parliament, MP Osama Al-Shaheen, has called for an urgent legislative intervention by the assembly to impose fixed percentage of employment for Kuwaitis and to make it mandatory on the government to facilitate the replacement of expats in public jobs with Kuwaitis.
He also called for a fair distribution of foreign communities in Kuwait, saying that MPs must intervene in this issue because government measures have been very slow. The lawmaker said the panel will in the coming meetings invite government bodies concerned with replacement and Kuwaitization, like the Civil Service Commission, Supreme Planning Council, the Public Authority for Manpower and other relevant government entities to discuss government plans for creating jobs for Kuwaiti graduates.
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