The Capital Market Authority (CMA) in cooperation with the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) of South Al Sharqiyah Governorate held the third session of its Dhamani national awareness campaign on generalising health insurance coverage for private sector employees and visitors to Oman.
The session in Sur was held under the patronage of Shaikh Abdullah bin Mustahil bin Salim Shammas, Governor of South Al Sharqiyah Governorate. Also present were business community members, representatives of companies and different stakeholders of the project.
During the meeting Ahmed bin Ali al Mamari, Vice-President for Insurance Sector at CMA and the Head of Health Insurance Project team, discussed the project’s objectives and spoke about the different stakeholders from the society as well as the public and private sectors. Furthermore, CMA delivered a presentation about the unified health insurance policy to familiarise the audience with its features and services.
CMA emphasised during the meeting that the unified health insurance policy covers basic health- care for the employees and it does not obligate employers to provide any additional coverage. The policy provides optional coverage features for employers to select if they plan to offer their employees with additional benefits.
“This dialogue between public institutions, private sector organisations and the society’s representatives, is constructive and delighting. Such discussions and exchange of views will indeed contribute positively in the implementation of the project. This is what we have witnessed today through this meeting, which provided us with details of the project, its stakeholders and parties that took part in the preparation phase,” commented Shaikh Abdullah Shammas.
“The preparation of the unified health insurance policy went through a number of phases. Perspectives of various stakeholders were taken into consideration and similar international experiences were analysed.
On the other hand, the unified health insurance policy was also developed taking into account employees’ needs of basic health services that allow them to perform their duties efficiently. Furthermore, the policy guarantees the employees’ rights to receive the needed healthcare services regardless of their location in the Sultanate. Meanwhile, the policy provides business owners with the option of choosing between applying the mandatory basic services or adding also the optional benefits,” said Ahmed al Mamari.
“Institutions that provide health insurance coverage demonstrate their care about the satisfaction of their employees and their strive to provide them with a motivating environment. This in turn makes employees feel appreciated, who then perform their duties with more efficiency. Therefore, Dhamani was initiated to generalise this positive experience for private sector employees,” commented Rashid bin A’amir al Maslahi, OCCI’s Deputy Chairman for Administrative and Financial Affairs.
“The unified health insurance policy provides a foundation for everyone to offer health services and does not limit the range of benefits like the ones currently provided by many organisations to their employees. These organisations also are in fact expected to maintain the level of care they provide to their employees as a sign of encouragement and appreciation,” he added further.
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