Chronic diseases and residency

[link moderated]

This states that
'The Kuwait's Ministry of Health is said to have released a list of 22 disorders that make people ineligible to apply for permanent residence status in the country.
Surely this does NOT apply to simple folk that just work here on a work visa? -  The above only implies this is only applicable to those applying for 'permanent residence status'. Expats on work visa do not fall under this catergory.

Anyway, anyone want to bet anything on how it will NOT be implemented - you know, a bit like the driving regulations/impounding of cars while using a mobile phone etc etc etc that was rumoured some months ago and was scrapped after a week, after being found out that the cars impounded belonged to.. locals? ..and still every other driver is fiddling on his/her cell phone?

From the way it reads, they are referring to residence permits i.e. work visas.  It's the newspaper which is using the terms interchangeably  and incorrectly.  There is no such thing as permanent residence in the GCC - only citizenship and Kuwait doesn't exactly hand it out to expats to begin with.

Having said that, this decision is apparently to reduce healthcare costs but it doesn't make any sense.  The easier approach would be to eliminate free healthcare in government hospitals for expats and make private medical insurance mandatory for expats through employers - would boost insurance business.   

All it will do is encourage short term mentality for every expat in the country as some of the "disorders" are common like high BP.  Why would anyone want to put themselves through this mental tension?