Saudi Arabia: SR20,000 fine per employee for private companies failing to provide health insurance

Dubai: Saudi Arabia has warned fines of up to SR20,000 will be slapped on private companies per employee if they fail to provide health insurance.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) stressed the need to provide health insurance for all Saudi and non-Saudi employees working in the private sector and their dependents.

“Work is under way to establish an integrated link with the Health Insurance Council to detect cases of any employees who do not have medical insurance coverage and to deal with them electronically.

“The failure to provide health insurance for all workers in the private sector is considered as a violation by the employer and penalties will be slapped on the firms violating the medical insurance regulations,” Al Eqtisadiah newspaper reported quoting the ministry sources as saying.

According to the ministry, the erring companies and establishments with 51 or more workers shall have to pay a fine amounting to a maximum of SR20,000 for each worker in category A who do not have insurance.

The maximum fine will be SR5,000 per worker for category B in establishments with number of workers between 11 and 50; and SR2,000 per worker for category C at establishments with 10 or less workers.

There are a total of 10,070,879 people registered with health insurance providers in the Kingdom in addition to 6,567,734 employees, including 1,500,220 Saudis and 5,067,514 non-Saudis, 2,146,090 Saudi dependents, and 1,357,055 non-Saudi dependents.