The Sultanate, represented by the Capital Market Authority, participated in the sixth Regional Forum for Medical Insurance, which held the title of “The Medical Insurance Industry and Health Care between Facing Epidemics and the Implementation of Comprehensive Health Insurance; Egypt as a Model”. The Forum was held in the period from 11- 12th October, 2020 in Egypt, where Mr. Ahmed bin Ali Al-Mamari, Vice President of the Insurance Sector, participated through visual communication and presented the Sultanate’s experience and procedures taken in dealing with Coronavirus "Covid 19", on both health insurance and economic levels.
In its first session, the Forum discussed the role of the medical insurance industry and health care in providing service under the umbrella of comprehensive health insurance, while the second session discussed the role of regulatory entities in combating the effects of the spread of epidemics and the mechanism for dealing with the medical insurance sector. The third session discussed the strategy of insurance coverage to cover all citizens and its role in considering those affected by epidemics and providing them with insurance protection. The fourth session focused on the cooperation between pharmaceutical and medical preparations companies to work combinedly in order to provide better service to the citizen. As for the fifth session, it discussed with the issue of the importance of providing a medical product against emerging epidemics and the role of insurance companies and reinsurers, while the sixth and final session discussed new smart solutions, artificial intelligence and automation to support the comprehensive health insurance system and linking it to service providers and insurance companies.
The Forum concluded its sessions with several recommendations, the most important of which was; working to achieve cooperation between the country and insurance companies by allowing insurance companies to contract with customers directly with a level of coverage and features chosen by the customer in addition to the government health insurance program. It also raised the option of giving financial settlement tasks to insurance companies or providing insurance coverage for citizens wishing to deal with insurance companies through health vouchers at the amount of the premium. It also highlighted on working on combined efforts between insurance supervisors and insurance unions to apply basic insurance principles regarding economic recovery plans for insurance markets post the Corona pandemic. It also recommended that regional entities shall study the establishment of an Arab insurance fund to cover the risk of epidemics and infectious diseases.