Types of Health Insurance

Though medicine and the healthcare industry have achieved impeccable heights, humanity is still at the risk of relentless health threats escalating incessantly. Medical care and hospitalization charges are expensive and can burn a hole in your pocket. In emergencies, medical costs may even consume your entire savings. Health insurance can come to your aid in solving healthcare expenses in such a critical situation. It also saves you from depending on others or exhausting your saving to cover the health expenses for yourself or your family.

Health Insurance – General Benefits and Coverage

Health insurance is a specific insurance product that covers the medical and surgical expenses of the insured individual/group/family. This category of insurance may also recompense the medical expenses one incurred during surgery or illness. There are many benefits of availing of health insurance in the Middle East, some of which are as follows:

• Easy Cashless Treatment - An important feature of health insurance enables the insured to receive cashless treatment at the network hospital for the covered ailments.
• Critical Illness Coverage – This benefit of health insurance plans covers the expenses of critical diseases like cancer or critical replacement surgeries or others, provided the insured is diagnosed with any of the covered critical diseases.
• Pre- and Post-Hospitalization/Operative Coverage - An important benefit of health insurance plans is the coverage of additional costs before and after treatment like costs for transportation, home nursing, diagnostic tests, etc.
• Periodic Health Check-ups - Health insurance plans also cover the cost of periodic health check-ups for the insured; however, the maximum limit of coverage may vary with the insurance plan.

Different Types of Health Insurance

Most health insurance plans in the Middle East provide maximum coverage for the medical expenses incurred by the insured. The insurance premiums are typically charged annually or monthly for a fixed tenure or as specified by the insurance provider. Health insurance plans can be broadly categorized as:

Family Health Insurance

The physical well-being of the family is always a concern for every person, however, owing to the rising cost of health facilities, it becomes difficult to avail of the required medical facility without exhausting savings. Keeping that in mind, health insurance providers in the UAE offer a wide range of health insurance offers that not only cover the medical costs incurred during treatment but also reimburse pre-treatment and post-treatment expenditures. In addition, it also covers expenses for outpatient consultations, diagnostic tests, and prescription drugs. The family health insurance plans also cover pre-existing and chronic conditions, emergency hospitalizations, and treatment. At Cigna, we provide quality healthcare solutions to your family members with a range of coverage options.

Individual Health Insurance

This category of health insurance plans is specifically for individuals. Individual health insurance plans provide the insured access to a network of healthcare providers in the UAE (specified regions) along with additional benefits like in-patient and day patient benefits, pathology, radiology, and diagnostic tests, transportation charges, and post-operative/hospitalization charges, maternity care, cover for pre-existing and chronic conditions, emergency out of area coverage. However, as the insurance is specifically for an individual, the reimbursement or the sum assured is provided only to the insured. Cigna provides comphensive health plan for individuals depending on where you will be travelling to and your budget, we have a plan to suit your needs.

Group Health Insurance

A business's performance stands on the employees' welfare and happiness. Besides monetary benefits and career aspects, employees also look for security. Group health insurance plans are a part of employee welfare activity that is generally provided to the employees by their employers to ensure their health. A group insurance policy offers employees several healthcare benefits including life coverage, accidental coverage, pre-operative/ hospitalization, post-operative/ hospitalization expense coverage, and much more irrespective of their age, gender, or professional position. Cigna offers world-class benefits to SMEs and corporate employees in Middle East. The health insurance plans are customised as per your business needs.

Health Insurance for Senior Citizens

Health insurance plans for Senior citizens are specially crafted to cover medical expenses for elderly people aged sixty years and above. Most health insurance plans for Senior Citizens in the UAE covers pre-existing condition and critical illness. Standard health plans for elderly people in the UAE have some standard features like cover for pre-existing and chronic conditions, mental health care out of area emergency cover, ophthalmology, and dental care. However, coverage and benefits may vary from one plan to another.

Choosing the best health insurance plan for you

In today’s world of digitization, when everything is available at the click of a mouse, there is no dearth of options to choose from. You will have myriad options if you are looking for health insurance in the Middle East. A health insurance plan is a secret to your and your family’s safety; hence you should make your choice diligently. Here are a few tips on how you can do that:

• Shop around for the best offers and coverage
• Shortlist health insurance plans that serve your purpose
• Choose a service provider who offers an extensive network of hospitals
• Opt for a plan that has a feature of lifetime renewability
• Select a plan that offers coverage for periodic health check-ups and preventive measures

As goes the age-old proverb “Health is wealth”, you should take every step to ensure that your and your family’s health aspects are not compromised at any cost. Therefore, choose a health insurance plan that suits your financial and medical requirements.