Essential Benefits Plan
Also called EBP. Updated
What it is for
Dubai requires every resident to hold health insurance, and requires employers to provide it. The Essential Benefits Plan is the floor: a standardised product an employer can buy for lower-paid staff, with the benefits, the network and the price band set by the regulator rather than by the insurer.
The salary test
Eligibility is a salary test, and the threshold that appears throughout UAE rate charts and underwriting conditions is AED 4,000 per month. Plans in Rabt's demonstration inventory carry an explicit flag for whether members earning below that threshold are accepted at all — and they do not all say yes.
Why it constrains a broker
An employee below the threshold is not a free choice between products. Quoting them onto a plan whose underwriting refuses sub-threshold salaries produces a quote that cannot be issued, which is discovered at submission rather than at comparison. Salary band is a filter on which plans are quotable, not a discount to apply afterwards.
Verify the current terms
The benefit set, the limit and the price band attached to the Essential Benefits Plan are set by regulation and are revised from time to time. Confirm the current figures with the Dubai Health Authority or your insurer before quoting; this page describes the mechanism, not this year's numbers.
Where this comes up
Related terms
In Rabt
Every one of these is a field in Rabt
Co-pay, network, age band, waiting period — Rabt holds them as data on the plan, so a quote states them the same way every time and a comparison can line them up.