Different Types of Health Insurance in UAE

As the UAE government has made healthcare coverage mandatory, one must know how health insurance works. Sometimes corporate health insurance plans aren’t enough to address your concerns. That is why it is important for you to get a sound health insurance plan.

In this post, we will discuss different types of health insurance plans that you can opt for based on your preferences. Let us begin with pondering over what is health insurance and why you might need one in UAE.

The above plans and premiums are for AED 1,000,000 Sum insured for 1 Adult of 30 Years for Dubai city.

What is Health Insurance?

Health insurance is a type of insurance that helps you cover the expenses arising from severe or regular illness. These expenses include the costs of doctor’s consultation, diagnostics and tests, medicines, and hospitalization.

Here are few reasons to buy health insurance:

To deal with fluctuating medical costs
To manage your medical expenses well
To safeguard your family from financial contingencies
To fight lifestyle diseases more effectively
To get quality treatment
To protect your savings from being wiped out in one go

What are the 4 types of health insurance?

Here are the types of health insurance plans that you can choose from.

1. Basic Health Insurance

A basic health insurance plan covers policyholders against all the medical expenses caused due to an injury or illness. Various health insurance companies in the UAE offer basic health insurance plans for individuals and families. These plans cover the cost of treatment when you or your family members get admitted to a hospital.

All these insurance plans come with different monthly and annual insurance premiums. To find the best basic health insurance plan, you can compare the ones offered by various insurance providers and choose a health insurance plan that best fits your needs.

2. Comprehensive Health Insurance

Comprehensive health insurance provides the most extensive coverage against medical expenses. The comprehensive health insurance plan covers the outpatient and inpatient medical expenses, including diagnostics and tests, cost of medicines, doctor’s consultations, etc.

The insurance companies in the UAE offer the best comprehensive health insurance plans. With these insurance plans, you can get limited cover for homeopathy, physiotherapy, osteopathy, etc. And some of these cover the expenses of home nursing and private ambulance.

The best part about comprehensive health insurance plans is that you can even add an optical and dental cover by paying an extra premium amount.

With comprehensive health insurance plans, you get coverage for pre and post-hospitalization expenses. If you choose a cashless hospital for your treatment, you get the expenses paid directly by your insurance company. On the flip side, if you choose a non-cashless hospital, you need to submit your medical bills and other cost-related documents to your insurance company and get the amount reimbursed in no time.

Here are the benefits that you enjoy when buying a comprehensive health insurance plan.

You get the medical cover for daycare procedures like angiography, chemotherapy, dialysis, radiotherapy, hydrocele, etc.
You get coverage for regular health check-ups as a preventive measure.
You get coverage for private ambulance services.
Some of the comprehensive health insurance plans cover the expenses for organ donation. These types of health insurance plans offer financial cover for your donor.

Most insurance companies offer comprehensive health insurance plans for critical illnesses like cancer, paralysis, heart attack, stroke, major organ transplant, coronary artery disease, chronic lung disease, etc.

Comprehensive health insurance plans include individual health insurance, personal accident insurance, critical illness insurance, family floater health insurance, and many others. You need to choose the type of medical insurance plan based on your current medical condition.

3. Shariah Compliant Health Insurance

Shariah Compliant Health Insurance is also known as Takaful Insurance. Takaful health insurance enables members to contribute money to support each other’s medical expenses. These types of medical insurance plans are based on Islamic religious law and explain that individuals are responsible for protecting each other. Takaful health insurance plans offer both life and health insurance benefits. If any member registers a claim, the insurance amount gets paid out of the Shariah Compliant Health Insurance fund created by other members.

Under Shariah Compliant Health Insurance plans, the members agree to contribute to some mutual fund instead of paying monthly or annual premiums. First, however, each member needs to clarify the type of insurance cover they need and contribute accordingly.

Here is a list of principles that Shariah-Compliant Health Insurance policies follow:

The claims must be paid out of the contribution made by the members
The Insurance policy operates on the basis of Islamic cooperative principles
A reinsurance commission must be paid out to Islamic insurance and reinsurance organizations
There should be two kinds of funds - a shareholder fund and a policyholder fund.

A Takaful operator manages all the funds, administers the claims on behalf of all the other participants, and charges an agreed amount of fee to cover up the costs, just like a regular insurance company pays salaries to their sales, marketing, and claims management teams.

4. Health Insurance with Direct Access to Hospitals

These types of health insurance have direct tie-up with their network hospitals. They offer cashless benefits for the policyholders to help them deal with their finances in a better way.

When you buy health insurance with direct access to hospitals, you need not make your medical bill payment. Instead, you can simply show your insurance card at the hospital and get your medical bills directly paid by your insurance company.

Here are the significant benefits you get when buying health insurance with direct access to hospitals.

Cashless health insurance reduces your financial burden and lets you focus on your health
These types of health insurance plans offer complete medical coverage, including the pre and post hospitalization expenses
They give you peace of mind and save you from worrying about arranging the funds at the time of bill payment
If your insurance company directly ties up with the hospitals, you can visit any of the network hospitals anytime and anywhere if you need medical assistance.

If you are not sure which type of health insurance cover is the best for you, the following are the ways to help you find the suitable one.

How to Choose the Best Healthcare Insurance Plan?

You can help cover your medical expenses by choosing a suitable plan from different types of medical insurance plans available in the UAE.

Here are a few steps you can take to make an informed decision.

Discover Your Needs: The first thing you need to do is discover your needs. You need to figure out the kind of insurance cover you need and the amount of insurance premium you can easily pay every month.
Analyze Your Current Medical Condition: Next, you need to analyze your medical condition. For example, if you have a modern lifestyle and find yourself more prone to be caught by some critical illness, you must choose a comprehensive health insurance plan. On the other hand, if you are fit and healthy, if you take regular exercise and just need regular medication to cure your fever or other medical issues, you can opt for a basic health insurance plan.
Go through the Healthcare Benefits: List down different types of health insurance plans with their benefits and choose the one that suits your medical needs. You can also get in touch with insurance professionals to seek help if you are new to buying insurance.
Compare the Insurance Plans: You need to keep in mind various things like insurance premium, the claim process, the claim settlement ratio, the benefits offered, and much more while choosing a health insurance plan. Make sure you check all these factors before you make a final decision.
Choose the Best Plan: After shortlisting a few health insurance plans based on your needs, choose the one that best fits. Further, you can get in touch with the selected insurance company and purchase the insurance plan.

Final Thoughts

With different types of health insurance plans available in the market, you must choose the one that offers complete coverage and suits your requirements. It all depends upon your current medical and financial condition. You need to make the right choice today to enjoy the benefits in the future.