Dubai resident annoyed over small print in health insurance

Last year my husband changed jobs and health insurance was no longer provided for our children so we took out insurance through my husband's new company, intending to pay for it ourselves. Before getting our cards we paid for some treatment and claimed it back. We soon realised that the insurance wasn't that great as the network was limited and didn't cover our preferred doctors. We then cancelled the insurance and put the children under my company insurance thinking we would only pay the two months' payments for the previous insurance. We have now been informed that we need to pay the full amount of Dh10,000 for the year as we made a claim on the insurance. Is this correct and if it is, can I fight this? At this point I'm even happy to pay what we would have paid at the doctors if we did not claim as it comes to less than Dh5,000. I can't believe I would have to pay the already 30 per cent of that (the Dh5,000) as well as the Dh10,000 for the three children for the annual payment. Needless to say I am cross. Do I just suck this up or if there is a way out of this? GF, Dubai

All personal DHA-compliant policies are taken out for a period of 12 months, even if premiums are payable monthly. If someone cancels a policy they are still liable for the premiums for the remainder of the plan year. While some companies will let this slide if there have been no claims, if claims have been made they will require the remainder of the premiums to be paid in full in accordance with the contract terms. This will have been in the small print and the policyholder would have legally accepted this when signing the declaration before proceeding. I would really expect any provider or broker to have made this clear at the outset and it is important that this is done. In this scenario GF is liable for the full annual premiums and the insurance company is within their rights to pursue the full payment.

Keren Bobker is an independent financial adviser and senior partner with Holborn Assets in Dubai, with over 20 years’ experience. Contact her at keren@holbornassets.com. Follow her on Twitter at @FinancialUAE.

The advice provided in our columns does not constitute legal advice and is provided for information only.

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