The Ministry of Health (MoH) is expected to increase the fees collected for health services provided to expats by 15-20 percent and impose health insurance on visitors before the end of the year, local daily Kuwait Times reported citing Al Rai Arabic news paper.

According to daily, three hospitals will be ready by 2019 by a company to provide medical services for expatriates in the private sector. Once the company is formed, public health services provided by the ministry would only be restricted to citizens and expats working for the public sector.

The daily, quoting MoH Undersecretary Dr Khaled Al-Sahlawi reported that a study on the fees collected from expats for radiology, nuclear and lab tests compare to those collected by the private sector found a huge difference despite the ministry’s operational costs being much higher. The committee submitted the study results to Minister Ali Al-Obaidi and expected that the new fees would be in effect soon.

Sahlawi explained that a company was established according to the public-private-partnership (PPP) system in which citizens would own some shares to build three private hospitals and 15 medical centers for expatriates working for the private sector, whose numbers range between 1.75-2 million.