Forum discusses health insurance policy

Muscat: The Capital Market Authority (CMA), in coordination with the Ministry of Oil and Gas (MoG), recently organised a meeting with representatives of oil and gas companies to discuss the key features of its national health insurance project.
The project, which will be implemented by CMA in cooperation with other authorities, aims at generalising health insurance coverage for private sector employees. The meeting comes in line with the authority’s activities to raise awareness about the project and its implementation mechanisms.
“The oil and gas sector contains a large number of Omani and non-Omani workers. The sector has a rich experience in providing health care services to its employees. We coordinated with the MoG to meet representatives of this sector to discuss details of the national project. The meeting is a part of our ongoing efforts and one of many to engage the community and devise the best possible mechanism to receive feedback," said Ahmed bin Ali Al Mamari, Vice President for the Insurance Sector at CMA and the Head of the Health Insurance Project Team.
"This will help us plan the most effective ways to implement the project. This will also serve the interests of different parties aligned with the interests of the public,” he added.
The officials discussed how to manage companies that have private clinics and also highlighted establishments that provide health insurance from companies outside Oman. Furthermore, the meeting shed light on the current status of contractors of the oil and gas companies.
CMA emphasised during the meeting that the implementation of the unified health insurance policy aims at providing basic health care services to primarily those who do not currently have health insurance. The companies that are already offering this service to its employees should not downgrade their health insurance coverage.
While the Health Insurance Project Team continues its preparations, the implementation of the generalisation project will begin next year. According to the audited financial statements for 2017, the health insurance products have seen a growth over the past five years, with an average of 26 per cent, which represents 30 per cent of the total portfolio insurance.