The amendment of the Insurance Companies Law and Takaful Insurance Law is aimed at focussing on separating health insurance as an independent activity with the largest share in the market.
Sheikh Abdullah Salim al Salmi, executive president of the Capital Market Authority said the amendments of the Insurance Companies Law and the Takaful Insurance Law promulgated under Royal Decrees recently related in general to health insurance and focus on enhancing the regulatory readiness of the health insurance in the Sultanate in response to the increasing significance of the health insurance sector and the rapid growth in the volume of the health insurance market during the past period. The average annual growth of this vital sector during the past eight years was 19% leading all other sectors of the insurance with a 34 percent share of the gross insurance premiums in the year 2020 at RO 466 million.
He said added that such facts and the future importance of the sector and its distinctiveness from the other branches of insurance require enhancement of the efficiency of the insurance companies who render health insurance activity and regulate them to ensure their financial ability and human resources to provide the financing required for health care for their customers and adequate protection for health insurance policyholders. Al Salmi said that the new amendments separate health insurance to be an independent activity from the other activities of insurance after being part of the general insurance business.
Al Salmi said the amendments in the Royal Decrees are a breakthrough in the regulation of the Omani insurance market as they take the industry to a new phase of regulation, higher levels of quality of the services the industry renders pointing out such independence takes into consideration the uniqueness of the health insurance activity and the nature of the insurance service as it is about the health care and the lives of individuals which require the provision of legislative and technological infrastructures commensurate with such distinctiveness and at the same time cope with the international developments and standards in regulation, soundness and quality of the services rendered to the health insurance policyholders.
Al Salmi pointed out that the amendments respond to the requirements of the current development phase of the Oman Vision 2040 under the wise leadership of His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq, may Allah protect him, through expansion of the vital economic activities which health insurance is part of and would create investment opportunities in the insurance sector and the related services as well as the sectors of health services which would respond to the demand for such services by the insured and would attract domestic and international investments in the private health sector contributing to the economic growth and in providing quality insurance and health services in the various governorates of the Sultanate beside furnishing employment opportunities for the youth.
Al Salmi explained that the amendments to the Insurance Companies Law and Takaful Insurance Law were done with the participation of all the relevant entities such as the private sector and government entities who shared their views to build an integrated health insurance system to achieve the intended objects.
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