Policyholders in Dubai and the Northern Emirates have a fresh option to keep their medical cover from creeping upward at every renewal. Policybazaar.ae introduced an add-on on Monday that fixes a customer’s health insurance premium at sign-up and holds it there for as long as five years.
Marketed as the “Health Insurance Premium Lock,” the feature blocks the price increases that normally accompany annual renewals — whether those stem from rising medical costs or from a customer crossing into an older, costlier age band. Whatever rate a policyholder agrees to at purchase becomes the rate they pay for the duration of the lock.
Who qualifies
Eligibility is limited to adults aged 60 and below who have no declared pre-existing conditions, and the add-on applies only to a selection of plans. Customers attach it during checkout when buying a qualifying policy through the platform.
Neeraj Gupta, CEO of Policybazaar.ae, framed the product around easing renewal-time stress. “Renewal season should not be a moment of anxiety, it should be a formality,” he said, adding: “The price you see when you first sign up, that is the price you carry forward.”
Why premiums climb
Two forces typically push UAE health insurance higher. Medical inflation runs somewhere between 5 and 10 per cent a year, according to the company, while age-band loading can tack on as much as 20 to 25 per cent once a customer passes a milestone birthday.
What the company found striking was how often increases landed on people who had given insurers no reason to charge more. Its own customer figures indicate that close to 40 per cent of those hit with higher renewal prices had filed no claims and carried no pre-existing illnesses.
A common grievance
Toshita Chauhan, the firm’s Chief Business Officer, said surprise pricing topped the list of complaints heard at renewal time. “The moment you buy it, whatever your age, whatever your plan, that premium is yours to keep for five years,” she said.
The launch arrives against a backdrop of mandatory health coverage in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where residents are legally required to carry a policy. Across the wider market, insurers everywhere have been recalibrating prices to absorb steeper treatment costs and heavier use of healthcare services.
