Rise in health premium may cause heart attacks to small businesses

Small business owners are worried over plans to increase the health insurance amount per employee to BD100 a year as the move would bring in extra financial burden on these firms amidst tough economic situations.

The President of the Supreme Council of Health, Dr Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, had announced that the new health insurance scheme would be applied on expat employees by the beginning of 2019.

“Companies will have to pay BD100 per year for each worker so that comprehensive care could be offered to them,” Dr Shaikh Mohammed had said.

Speaking to Tribune, Nizar Adwan, a small business owner said that “forcing small business owners to pay BD100 a year for an employee is unacceptable and small businesses cannot be compared to large companies”.