New Year to Showcase the Middle East as an Insurance Market on the Move

Dr. Dennis Sebastian

In Brief

The Middle East insurance market is set for growth in 2026, fueled by regulatory expansion, digital innovation, and rising demand for private healthcare. With billions in new gross written premiums expected, insurers can look to modernize infrastructure, embrace AI, and deliver hyper-personalized products to stay competitive.

Key takeaways

GCC countries are expanding compulsory health insurance, especially for expatriates, potentially adding $10 billion in GWP and shifting care from public to private sectors.
AI and centralized health information exchange platforms are streamlining claims, fraud detection, and care delivery, with KSA and UAE leading implementation.
Diverse populations and global healthcare partnerships are driving demand for tailored insurance products and positioning the region as a medical value travel hub.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) health insurance market is accelerating toward a new frontier. Fueled by a compound annual growth rate of 10%-15% and regulatory mandates expanding coverage, the region is set to add billions in gross written premiums (GWP) in 2026.

But growth alone is not the story. Digital infrastructure, AI, and hyper-personalized products will reshape the competitive landscape.

This article outlines trends and developments that could define 2026, along with the implications for insurers and investors.

Setting the stage

The health insurance market across GCC countries wrote gross premiums of approximately $18-19 billion in 2023, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) alone accounting for more than 80% of the total GWP. Health insurance today accounts for 45%-50% of the total insurance GWP in this region, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10%-15%.

Drivers of growth include:

Regulation mandating health insurance for expatriates
Increasing lifestyle-related illness
Growth of the private health services sector
Availability of advanced medical care in the region
Aging populations
Growth of diversified non-hydrocarbon economy

Trends to watch in 2026

With foundational shifts already underway, 2026 could mark a turning point for health insurance in the GCC, with strong forces driving transformation across policy, infrastructure, and innovation.

Policy

Compulsory health insurance for expatriates appears imminent in Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar.
Regulators are mulling initiatives to provide health insurance plans for nationals that give them access to private sector providers while the government remains the policyholder. Such an approach is expected to boost the private health services sector and generate at least an additional $10 billion in GWP.
A growing trend toward employment of nationals in the private sector is swinging use of the public health services sector to the private sector.

Providers

A growing and regulated health insurance industry acts as a guarantee for investing in the private health sector. Potential partnerships include the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Apollo Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic, Ceders-Sinai, MD Anderson, and others that have established a regional presence. As more follow, this will increase accessibility to quality healthcare services but also drive up costs.

Process

To manage expansive growth, insurers will need to move from manual to automated processes, which will require investment in digital infrastructure and experienced talent.
Business increasingly is being conducted over centralized health information exchange (HIE) platforms that seamlessly connect payors-providers and patients while ensuring privacy. KSA and UAE have already implemented HIE platforms for data exchange. Other GCC countries are in various stages of implementation.
Artificial intelligence (AI) use in claims processing, data analytics, fraud management, overutilization management, and health risk assessment is becoming the norm across the region.

Products

An increasingly diversified population that includes elders, parents, retirees, investors, golden visa holders, and expats creates opportunities and demands for benefits and services beyond those mandated by regulators. Hyper-personalized and niche products offering tailored benefits and services are in demand. Benefits that include portability, continuity, global accessibility, worldwide direct billing, disease management, wellness, remote delivery of non-acute healthcare services, and access to marketplace solutions all under a single window are creating a new unique selling proposition (USP) for the industry.
Even with regulators playing a proactive role in cost control, rising incidences of lifestyle-related illness and non-communicable diseases are poised to drive medical inflation.

General

Market consolidation is likely, with more mergers and acquisitions among insurers, providers, and administrators.
Customer-centric initiatives, such as digital health, remote health, preventive care, disease management, mind health management, access to marketplace noninsurance services, and incentives for wellness and engagement, will be key growth drivers.
The region, particularly UAE with its ease of access and availability of global healthcare partners, will likely grow as a medical value travel destination. Long waits at NHS, limitations in tertiary care in even affluent African countries, and availability of top expertise are driving demand.
The health insurance industry is an attractive target for cybercriminals. Insurers across the region must upgrade cybersecurity practices with advanced threat detection tools that include robust endpoint detection and response systems.
AI is making deep inroads into the healthcare delivery chain. Various AI verticals are being used to help diagnose diseases, personalize treatment plans, predict patient outcomes, discover new drugs, and support clinical decisions. As an assistant to the physician, AI speeds up decision making, decreases human error, and provides insights from vast datasets more quickly. These add value to the industry by lowering the number of diagnostic tests required to make a decision, improving claims processing accuracy, and making healthcare delivery more accessible and cost-effective.

Conclusion

These trends signal big changes ahead. To thrive in 2026 and beyond, insurers must act now to modernize infrastructure, strengthen cybersecurity, and deliver value through customer-centric care. The future is being built today.

Meet the Authors & Experts

Author

Dr. Dennis Sebastian

Vice President, Head of Health Solutions, RGA Middle East