Insurance Federation of Egypt held on Wednesday a symposium presided by Abdel Raouf Kotb for the general committee for healthcare insurance to discuss the problems and obstacles facing medical insurance sector as well as a study analyzing insurance market results for 6 years since 2003. The symposium was attended by the general committee for healthcare insurance members presided by Saeed Bayoumi, the manager of general insurance administration at Misr Life Insurance Co.; Egyptian Society for Healthcare Management presided by Dr. Ehab Abu Al Magd and some of medical care management companies and insurance brokers. Abdel Raouf Kotb, chairman of Insurance Federation of Egypt, said on the sidelines of the symposium that the high incurred losses of insurance companies came as a result of the medical insurance claims. Accordingly, Kotb called for cooperation between insurance companies and medical care management companies with the Egyptian Society for Healthcare Management to cut out losses. Medical care management companies need the Society's assistance as they have no experience in dealing with risks nor issuing insurance policies, Kotb added. Saeed Bayoumi said that the general committee for healthcare insurance has made many achievements including issuing new insurance products and policies since its establishment in 2010. Bayoumi further added information about conditions of issuing medical insurance policies, noting that health insurance policies do not cover injuries resulting from war, terrorism and revolutions, treatment for intoxicant and drug addiction, AIDS and epidemic diseases nor herbal treatment. In addition, an analytical study showed that net premiums rose by 713.47% in FY 2008-2009 as compared to that in FY 2003-2004, noting that the reason of this increase is not known whether it is because of prices increase or customers increase. Bayoumi called on insurance companies to conduct robust underwriting and make risk estimation more precise to increase net premiums. Ali Abdel Aziz, member at the committee and deputy manager of health care unit at Suez Canal Insurance, said that medical and health care insurance bodies were in need for an entity to manage their transactions, adding that the general committee for healthcare insurance plays this role effectively. Khaled Abdel Hafez, member at the committee and consultant at medical reinsurance unit at Misr Insurance, said that reinsurance sector has many advantages such as reanalyzing financial data by which a good pricing will be made when renewing insurance policies and issuing new polices. As there is not full and precise data about medical insurance market in Egypt, reinsurers raise the insurance prices to avoid possible losses, Abdel Hafez added. Ali Abdel Aziz called on Insurance Federation of Egypt and Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority to set a training program for medical insurance brokers. At the end of the symposium, Kotb said that the Federation set a 4-month vocal diploma in health care in cooperation with Insurance Institute presented by Bupa Company for Health Insurance. There will another diploma for reinsurance sector, Kotb added.
