“Brand” medicines raise the prices of health insurance policies… and “alternatives” are ignored despite their effectiveness

Elderly customers said that the focus of hospitals and medical clinics on writing medications from high-priced “brands,” and ignoring cheap alternatives that have the same effect, contributes greatly to increasing the prices of health insurance policies and costs them large sums as a result.

They confirmed to “Emirates Today” that the majority of the elderly take medications for chronic diseases, which are expensive and for long periods, and with the approval of the drug itself from the same large company or importer, there is difficulty when renewing documents, as a result of the high cost paid by insurance companies in the form of medical claims.

They called for the necessity of introducing low-cost medicines that have the same composition and active ingredient into the prescriptions written by doctors, and urging hospitals to diversify medicines to cover segments of the elderly who use them frequently and almost constantly.

The head of the health committee at the Emirates Insurance Federation, Abdul Mohsen Jaber, told Emirates Today that “the well-known high-priced medicines belonging to large companies, or what are known as brands, are one of the factors that affect the rise in the price of health insurance policies for the elderly, among several other factors, including the age of the insured, medical history, the type of insurance benefits he chooses, and other basic matters.”

Jaber explained that the excessive prescription of “brand” medications does not affect the price of the elderly’s policies themselves, but rather the prices of the policies for all ages, and it is among the exaggerated medical practices that raise the price of health insurance, noting that the price of medicines produced by unknown companies, for example, is lower than those produced by international companies, even though the active ingredient is the same in both types, and in the end the cost of the medicines is much lower.

He pointed out that brand-name medications are many times more expensive than their regular counterparts, but they do not only raise the cost for the elderly, but also for all ages of the insured.

He noted that insurance companies provide various health insurance packages that suit every person, regardless of their age, in terms of benefits and coverage. In general, health insurance prices rise annually due to global inflation and the increase in other influential costs.

Jaber continued: “We need more controls regarding exaggerated medical practices by hospitals and doctors, including excessive reliance on branded medicines, as well as unnecessary procedures such as examinations, analysis, etc., as all of these matters directly affect the prices of documents.”

12.3 billion dirhams, the cost of treating the insured within 6 months

The latest statistics issued by the Central Bank indicate that the value of written premiums in the health insurance branch during the first half of this year amounted to 20.7 billion dirhams, while the volume of claims paid by insurance companies, that is, the cost of the insured’s bill during the same period, recorded 12.3 billion dirhams.