Dubai, Pakistan s State Life Insurance Corporation SLIC is planning to launch health insurance scheme for residents in the UAE and elsewhere in the Gulf region, said its visiting Chairman Shahid Aziz Siddiqui.
We are finalizing plan to roll out a new health insurance scheme to cover medical needs of hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis and other expatriates in the UAE and in other the Gulf region countries following high demand from expatriate community, Siddiqi said at annual award giving function in Dubai.
Since, medical insurance has become compulsory in Abu Dhabi for all employees and plans are underway to make it mandatory for all companies to cover medical expenses for employees, SLIC considers it timely to launch affordable health insurance policy especially for low income group of people.
Khalid Mahmoud Shahid, Dubai based Gulf Zonal Chief of SLIC said they were growing at fast pace in the UAE with opening of new offices in Sharjah and Al Ain and would open offices in Bahrain and Qatar this year.
He said Sharjah office so far raised US$0.6 million premium, which might go up to US$1.2 million in first year of operations. We will soon open more offices in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah to boost our life insurance business in the UAE.
SLIC has over 15,000 policyholders in UAE and another 4,000 are expected to be added this year. We have added about 7,000 policyholders in past three years, but 15,000 figure is not enough considering huge potential in the country.
“We evolved an aggressive strategy to double SLIC policy holders in next two years by targeting all communities. Our Life Fund in the Gulf region recorded very robust growth in past three years as premiums rose to $66.5 million this year compared to $38 million in 2008, he added.
He said SLIC is expected to raise $20 million (Dh73.5 million) gross premium in Gulf Zone this year compared to $16 million in 2011. SLIC announced new Terminal Bonus first time along with Reversionary Bonus in history of Gulf Zone for its policy holders.
