Early 2023 should see UAE confirm launch date for universal medical insurance.
Compulsory UAE-wide medical insurance will bring residents across all emirates under coverage. Insurance industry sources say basic medical insurance package premiums will differ with the emirate.
Dubai: With UAE planning compulsory health insurance across all emirates, citizens and residents will have more medical insurance plans to choose from. And even on what they need to pay as annual premium on their medical insurance.
But this need not mean that the basic health cover will be the same across each of the emirates, insurance industry sources say. Each emirate could have the flexibility to decide what its ‘basic’ healthcare insurance premium should be, they add.
“The basic plan premiums would be below the Dh1,000 bracket,” said a spokesperson at Dubai Insurance. “But a standardisation of rates in all the emirates will be quite unlikely due to differences in regulator guidelines and minimum benefits offered in the basic policy.”
The date for the UAE-wide compulsory medical insurance rollout is yet to be confirmed, but insurance and healthcare industry providers are hopeful that clarity on the launch will be provided early next year itself. Currently, only Dubai and Abu Dhabi have mandatory health insurance requirements for its residents, and which need to renewed annually.
* For a child, it would start from Dh789.
* For the wife, the annual premium would be from Dh1,700.
* For investors and Golden Visa holders, the packages start from Dh900.
* For parents of residents, medical cover could start from Dh2,100.In Abu Dhabi:
* For those up to 17 years, the typical medical premium would start from Dh1,670.
* For 18-40, the average would be Dh2,000.
* There is an additional Dh750 for maternity.
A post-COVID boost for insurers
For the UAE’s insurance industry, this will be one of the biggest breaks coming their way, and at a time when the need for optimal healthcare coverage has never been felt this acutely before. Even in a post-COVID healthcare landscape.
“Once implemented, the new compulsory health insurance scheme in Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain could double the premium income from medical insurance of about Dh1 billion over the next two to three years,” said Emir Mujkic, Director and Lead Analyst – Insurance Ratings, S&P Global Ratings.
However, the exact premium income will depend on the exact pricing, the table of benefits, and timing of the implementation, which remain uncertain at this stage.
COVID had done its part in ensuring that residents did not treat coming under medical cover as a mere process to be done for residency permits and other government-facing requirements.