Experts: Insurance for Saudi students abroad not viable

(MENAFN- Arab News) Plans are in the works for Saudi insurance companies to team up with the Ministry of Higher Education to provide students abroad with medical insurance. Insurance experts, however, have expressed their doubts about executing the plan. "Providing insurance to scholarship students abroad cannot be done through Saudi Arabia because when you weigh the risks in medical insurance, you evaluate it based on certain factors," said Adham Omar, adviser and consultant of Insurance and Reinsurance programs. "Key among these factors is that the medical procedures carried out must be in accordance with the rules stipulated by the host country the students reside in." According to an Al-Eqtisadiah report, Abdul Aziz Abu Saud, a member of the National Insurance Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), confirmed that at least 15 companies have been targeted to tackle the insurance issue for citizens abroad, yet they still lack coordination of services with hospitals outside the Kingdom. Omar said that customer charges and insurance rates differ from country to country. "For example, when taking into consideration countries like India, Pakistan and Indonesia, the customer charges and the rate for medical procedure is 75 percent less than Saudi Arabia," he said. "So that means the rate of insurance has been changed. If you take countries in Europe and North America, the insurance rate is about 400 percent." Omar added: "Another important issue is that insurance companies in Saudi Arabia cannot provide the same way for direct selling because they have no delegates nor influence in other countries, and this is one of the main problems Saudi insurance companies face in Saudi Arabia for multinational companies. Due to this reason, they cannot provide appropriate medical insurance coverage for multinational companies and ministries. So they use the reimbursement method rather than the direct selling method; this is the second obstacle." Omar says the third obstacle is that the customer charges and the discount provided in those countries are completely different from Saudi Arabia. "Sometimes the discount is minimal while other times there is no discount at all." Omar said the discount may depend on the capacity the client receives from a certain insurance company through the provider. "Based on these three elements, Saudi insurance companies are unable to provide such coverage for scholarship students outside Saudi Arabia," said Omar. "It is simply not in their capacity because they are not in a position to provide insurance." Instead, he suggests the scholarship students be insured in the country they live in and adhere to the health care regulations of the host country. "It is best the scholarship students follow the reimbursement system," he said.