Kuwait has decided to exempt all citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) from all healthcare fees, treating them as “Kuwaitis”.
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health has updated its “Fees and Exemptions” policy for visitors to primary care centers, following a review of all policies regarding healthcare fees and exemptions.
The updates to the exemptions include exempting residents with valid cards from those who reside illegally, daughters and sons of Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis, non-Kuwaiti husbands of Kuwaiti women, GCC citizens holding civil IDs or passports, scholarship students, residents of social care homes, and children under the age of 18 diagnosed with cancer in Kuwait.
The exemptions also include non-Kuwaiti children under 12 years old with severe disabilities, prison inmates, shelters for domestic workers, members of official delegations, and transit passengers.
For categories not exempt from fees, the update indicates that fees will be applied to illegally resident individuals who do not hold a valid card registered in the health insurance system, and a fee of 10 dinars will be collected from them. Additionally, non-Kuwaiti residents registered in the health insurance system, including diplomats, will be charged two dinars for service fees and five dinars for treatment fees. Visitors and non-registered non-Kuwaitis will be charged 10 dinars.
Furthermore, domestic workers will be charged one dinar for all services including treatment. As for ministry employees, their spouses, and children, they will be charged two dinars for service fees and five dinars for treatment fees, with exemption from fees for radiology and nuclear medicine only.