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Health Insurance

How to prepare your health insurance for starting a family

Starting a family is a busy time with lots of things to prepare and your health insurance should be one of them. Here are some key things to consider before you start your next chapter:

Are you on the best type of insurance?

Health insurance for parents is a legal requirement in Dubai, whether you are a full-time resident or only working in the city temporarily. As a result, you must either be covered through your employer or your own plan. If you and your partner are both offered healthcare insurance by your employer, then you may want to stick with your existing work policies. However, if one or both of you aren’t covered through work and you organise your own health insurance, you may want to consider taking out a joint or family policy. This could save you money compared to multiple individual policies and gives you the convenience of having everything in one place.

Health insurance for your children

Protecting your children against illness or accidents is essential for keeping them safe, so check if your children are covered by your work health insurance policy. If not, and you and your partner are content with your existing cover, then you may want to start looking into separate children’s health insurance so you are prepared. Alternatively, you could choose to take out a new family health insurance policy, which would cover every member of the family in one.

Does your current policy offer maternity benefits?

If you are planning on trying to conceive in the near future, it is a good idea to check whether your current health insurance covers issues relating to pregnancy. Not every insurer will cover the same thing and some conditions related to pregnancy could be very costly for you if they aren’t covered. If you aren’t satisfied with what your current insurer offers, investigate alternative options before you become pregnant, if possible. Some insurance companies will be reluctant to accept new policies from women who are already pregnant.

If you want to check that you’ve got the best health insurance broker for you and your growing family, why not do some research and compare the available policies on our website?

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Health Insurance

Should I get health insurance for my child?

As an adult with one eye to the future, you may be considering family medical insurance, also referred to as medical insurance. But what about your children? Is it worth getting health insurance for the whole family?

What are the benefits of children’s health insurance?

Health insurance would give your child access to medical care within a private hospital. If the worst were to happen and your child needed treatment for a medical condition, it is likely that with insurance they would be seen quicker than if they went through the normal channels of public healthcare.

Other benefits include access to expensive drugs that may not be otherwise available. You may also be given the option to pick and choose your specialist consultant, rather than have that choice made for you.

What are my options?

This is where comparing the health insurance market really comes into its own. As is common with any insurance, the increasing cost of the premium reflects the scale of your cover. It is important to compare many different options to suit the needs of your child, but the options are usually tiered into basic, medium, and comprehensive.

Depending on affordability, you may also be able to add on extra coverage for things such as teeth, eyes, and physiotherapy. Remember, what is included in your chosen policy is as important as what is excluded. Check the small print regarding the exclusions to keep yourself informed.

Their own policy or a family policy?

By comparing the insurance market, you’ll see that it’s possible to insure your child on a stand-alone policy. However, it is more common to take out a family policy. Each policy will differ in what conditions are covered and who can be covered, but adding a child or children should be straight forward. Some policies, for example, allow you to add a child from birth free of charge, and start charging a premium after their first birthday. It is also worth considering that many family policies discount pre-existing conditions when adding a child from birth, thus keeping your premium reasonable.

Photo: Free image by Pixabay