Two UAE companies can pay the same per employee and hold completely different cover.

Employers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi must provide health insurance for their employees. The obligation follows the emirate that issued the employee’s visa, not where your office is - so a Dubai-headquartered company with staff on Abu Dhabi visas needs DOH-compliant cover for those staff, wherever they sit.

It differs by emirate, and the distinction is between employer and sponsor. In Dubai, the employer’s obligation is to the employee. Cover for a spouse, children or domestic workers falls on whoever sponsors their visas - usually the employee. So extending the company plan to families is a policy decision rather than a legal requirement, and plenty of employers do it to compete for staff. In Abu Dhabi the obligation is wider: employers and sponsors are responsible for the employee and their family, defined as one spouse and up to three children under 18.

Ninety days - because of what has to happen in sequence, not because it is a round number. Claims and utilisation data has to be requested from the insurer, and it does not arrive instantly. Reading it properly takes longer than reading a quote. Any restructure has to be modelled before it can be priced. Insurers need time to quote, and several come back with questions. Then you compare offers that are not like for like, decide, submit member data, and get policies issued before the old cover lapses - and if anything changes for employees, they need telling before it takes effect. Renewal terms typically arrive 30 to 60 days out. Starting when they land means that sequence cannot fit, so the only real options are accept or panic. Ninety days is what makes “no” a credible answer.

The provider bills the insurer directly, so your employee pays nothing at the point of treatment beyond any co-payment, rather than paying and reclaiming it later.

The third-party administrator that runs the provider network and processes claims - NextCare, NAS, MedNet and Neuron are the common ones in the UAE. Your employees deal with the TPA, not the insurer, which is why the TPA shapes how the plan actually feels to use.

Above a certain group size, insurers generally cover pre-existing conditions without individual medical declarations. Below it, disclosure may be required. The threshold varies by insurer, and consolidating several small policies into one group can move you above it.

Cover ends when they come off the policy, which is why prompt endorsements matter in both directions - a leaver left on the policy is premium you are still paying. Some plans allow continuation onto an individual policy, which is worth establishing before somebody needs it.

Fewer than most companies assume. The more useful threshold is the one at which insurers waive individual medical underwriting, because that is what determines whether your team faces disclosure forms at all.

They are the health regulators for Dubai and Abu Dhabi respectively, and they set different minimum products, dependant obligations and provider arrangements. Which one applies to a given employee is decided by the emirate that issued their visa, not by where your office is.

Exclusions vary by plan, but the common ones are cosmetic treatment, elective procedures, some chronic and pre-existing conditions on smaller plans, treatment outside the plan’s geographic scope, and anything above the annual limit. The exclusions list is where two similarly priced quotes usually differ most, and it is the part least often read.

On the mandatory minimum, maternity cover is limited. On comprehensive plans it is usually included, but with waiting periods and sub-limits that vary widely between insurers. If you have a young workforce it is worth comparing maternity terms specifically rather than assuming the headline plan level covers it.

Usually, yes — medical costs rise independently of your own claims, so renewals start from a higher baseline. How much of that reaches you depends on your claims history, your team’s profile, and whether the plan was renegotiated or simply rolled over. A flat or reduced renewal is achievable, but not by accident.

Normalise them before you look at price. Annual limit, network tier, geographic scope, co-payment structure, maternity and dental terms, and which administrator runs the network. Quotes are rarely like for like as issued, and the cheapest headline figure is frequently the narrowest plan.

Yes, and from a lower headcount than most people expect. The threshold that matters more than eligibility is the group size at which insurers stop requiring individual medical declarations — consolidating several small policies into one group can move you above it.

In Dubai, no. The employer must bear the full cost of the premium, and it cannot be deducted from salary or offset by reducing pay. Employees are responsible only for the deductibles and co-payments set out in the policy, and for treatment the plan does not cover.

An insurer quotes its own products. A broker takes the same requirement to several, holds your claims data across the year, and negotiates at renewal. The question worth asking either way is what happens in the eleven months between renewals.