Can You Buy Health Insurance for New Born Baby in UAE?

People look forward to expanding their family and as soon as a little one enters their world, he or she becomes their world. We would all go to enormous lengths to ensure the safety and happiness or our tiny tots. One way to provide a shield of protection to the apple of your eyes is to buy a health insurance plan for them.

The healthcare plans in the United Arab Emirates come with a new born child benefit that will offer protection in the unfortunate circumstance of your new born needing medical attention. This health cover saves you from spending exorbitant amounts of money, especially in private healthcare facilities. Sometimes new borns need special care and attention from their first moments in this world. As a consequence of this, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has made attempts to grant a health cover to new born babies by mandating insurers to provide coverage even if the baby is born premature, without any waiting period. This enables any child born in Dubai to get access to continuous health cover right from their time of birth.

More than this, the New Born Baby health insurance plans provide a lifetime insurance cover to the new borns. Such a facility offers assurance to the parents that their little one is going to have a much-needed comprehensive coverage throughout their life. This New Born Child health insurance benefit is generally available for purchase as an addition to the UAE Maternity insurance plan.

DHA’s mandate for covering New-borns

The Dubai Health Authority has attempted to strengthen the rules regarding the health insurance coverage of new born babies-

• No more waiting periods - Whenever a new born is added to a pre-existing group or individual policy or being insured separately, no insurance company can deny treatment costs for any medical condition for the first six months of the birth. Earlier some insurers required 6 months waiting period wherein coverage was denied until this period was complete. This was especially problematic if the delivery occurred in less than a period of 6 months. Thus, DHA waived the waiting period for the newly born. Parents do not have to worry about paying for the medical costs out of their pockets from day one.
• Allowing Backdating - All new-borns can be included or enrolled into a new policy from a start date that is even 7 days before. Health insurance can offer coverage to the baby from their date of birth itself if added or in the case that it is applied within the first week of delivery, making sure that the baby is covered from the very first day. It is a special case only for the new-borns and is not applicable to any other scenario. If the baby is a part of the mother’s policy, then the start date of the baby’s cover is backdated. This implies that the expenses covered under the mother’s healthcare policy can be cancelled and the amount will be deducted from the new born’s plan instead.

UAE’s New Born Health Insurance Cover:

By opting for the United Arab Emirates healthcare insurance plan that also comes with the benefits of the New Born Child cover will be beneficial in saving you from the expensive medical services across the country not only when the child is born but also for the rest of your baby’s life.

This is even more imperative if your child is born with some life-threatening medical condition that is often discovered only when your new born enters the world. As a part of a lot of health insurance plans in UAE the parents are not able to make their new born’s medical needs a part of their own coverage until after the birth of their bundle of joy. As a consequence of this loophole, insurance providers across the UAE consider any serious medical condition that threatens the little one as a pre-existing condition.

Regardless of that, the government is working towards ensuring that all its citizens receive world- class healthcare, even the little ones who are the country’s future. Mentioned below are some of the benefits offered by most insurance companies that provide the New Born Child cover benefits:

• Protection to the new born without any waiting period
• A guaranteed lifelong insurance protection
• A comprehensive cove that includes any congenital birth defects
• Sidestepping any pre-existing conditions issue
• Safeguard against the costs that are associated with premature births

These health insurance cover inclusions are quite attractive. They make sure that irrespective of what your baby’s health status is, they are completely protected against the excessive medical costs of treatment for the entirety of their lives.

How does Health Insurance for New Born Baby in UAE work?

There are essentially two ways of obtaining the New Born Child insurance cover for your family’s newest member. The new born can either be included in the existing health insurance cover of your family in the UAE or one can get the additional New Born Benefit for the little one.

If the child is born into the existing plan

Most of the prominent internationally renowned healthcare insurance companies provide this alternative to the expatriates living in the United Arab Emirates. This option allows the new born to become a part of the family’s existing health plan while at the same time giving them immediate access to the entire range of benefits covered under the plan. 

However, you must be aware that even though the DHA has scrapped the waiting period in Dubai, there might be a waiting period before you can have your new born be included in your existing health plan in other parts of the country. This waiting period also varies from one insurer to another. Commonly there is around 6 months waiting period before the plan becomes active.

This implies that you might have to hold your health insurance policy for a minimum of 6 months before your little one can be made a part of it. If on the contrary your baby is born before these 6 months, you might have to get a Free Benefit. The only option other than this is to buy a new and different policy to get a health cover for your infant.

Free New Born Child Benefit

Most of the UAE’s health insurance providers offer a New Child Benefit as part of their maternity cover. This benefit enables your little one to get a pre-defined amount of health coverage under his or her parent’s cover. Although once the limit, that is, the financial limit or the time limit is reached, you will have to file a new application with the insurance provider in order to make sure that your child continues to get insurance protection.

Another important thing to note is that once the Free New Born Child Benefit is exhausted, any of your child’s medical condition will be labelled as pre-existing when you make any new applications for getting continuous coverage. Thus, while on one hand, this alternative is budget-friendly, it is quite risky especially if the baby develops a medical condition in utero.

In a Nutshell

Protecting your child is your utmost priority so carefully research and figure out the various options available before you make up your mind on which alternative works best for you. Let your child enter this world with a shield of protection in the form of the New Born Baby health insurance policy.