Changes We’re Making To Health Insurance Policies in the UAE Starting Or Renewing On 01 June 2022

The headline changes to our health plans for UAE residents:

• Low average inflationary premium increases for existing customers
• New benefits for the Flex plan
• Extension of the new member discount
• Changes apply to health plans starting on or after 01 June 2021

Our values

We believe in people

Some insurers rely on AI and Big Data to do their work for them. We think differently. Healthcare is a highly personal experience, so it deserves a personal service. We’re a team of real people, at the end of a phone call when customers really need us.

Committed to fairness

Healthcare is expensive, and— sadly—costs are on the up. We do everything possible to spread this inflation fairly. We calculate premiums with a long- term pricing model, and we give customers tailoring tools to help reduce their premium without significantly compromising their cover.

Transparency matters to us

Insurance is about trust, so we believe in being fair and open. This belief informs our idea of healthcare as a partnership between our customers and us. That’s why we’re completely upfront with our health plans, and we want customers to understand precisely what they’re buying.

Commitment to relationships

The UAE (and especially Dubai) is a transactional marketplace. We’ve been active in Dubai since 2006, and in that time providers have come and gone. We remain committed to providing international insurance in the UAE. As usual, we prioritise a consultative approach with our brokers and customers and premiums that are sustainable for the long term.

Changes to benefits

Preventive health & well-being (all plans)

In line with DHA requirements, we’re adding cover for hepatitis B screening and treatment to the preventive health & well-being benefit on all plans.

We’re adding cover for the screening of sickle cells and congenital adrenal hyperplasia on all plans.

We’re adding a new section to the table of benefits on all plans. The section contains the following benefits for treatment of medical emergencies:

• In-patient and day-patient treatment following a road traffic accident or work-related injury
• Diagnostic/treatment services required for dental and gum treatment in a medical emergency
• Hearing, vision aids and surgical/laser vision correction required in a medical emergency

The benefit for child vaccinations on all plans now includes COVID-19 and flu jabs. We’re also increasing the ‘eligible up to’ age from 6 years old to 15 years old.

We’re adding cover for eye/hearing examinations for children up to 6 years old on all plans. The benefit is capped at US$50 per policy year.

We’re making changes to the benefits in the mental health treatment section. The new annual limit for mental health treatment on the Silver and Gold plans is now US$2,725 or AED10,000.

Hospital cash benefit (Flex only)

We’ve added a hospital cash benefit of US$50 per night (maximum of 60 nights) on the Flex plan.

Pharmacy benefit limit (Flex only)

We’re introducing a new option to upgrade the pharmacy benefit to full cover on the Flex plan.

Changes to our pricing

We’re changing all the deductible discounts and the price differentials between the Flex 1, 2 and 3 options. We’re also changing how we price the optional dental. From 01 June 2021, the optional dental benefits will cost a flat premium loading, rather than a percentage.

New member discount

We’ve extended the 7.5% discount for new members until 31 May 2023. Members will also enjoy a 3.75% discount on their first renewal premium. 

Changes to child discounts

We’re reducing the discount we give to second and subsequent children on health plans. The discounts apply to new business and renewals.

Technical changes

We’re making the following technical changes to the plan agreements for health plans starting on/after 01 June 2022.

We’re removing the exclusion for persistent vegetative state and neurological damage from all plans.

1. On Flex, we’re renaming the ‘Worldwide’ coverage zone to ‘Worldwide excl. USA’.
2. On Silver and Gold, we’re adding 90 days’ emergency cover in the USA as standard.

USA-45

​​​​​​​We’re dropping this option for both NB and renewal.

We’re no longer using the term ‘excess’ for our health products in the UAE. We now use the term ‘deductible’.

With child-only policies, the policyholder can choose any deductible available with the selected plan.

The above changes apply to residents of the UAE whose health plan renews on or after 01 June 2022. Our article on the changes we’ve made to health plans for residents living anywhere other than the UAE is available on our blog.