The medical insurance market in Egypt is undergoing a comprehensive restructuring process aimed at ending price distortions and tightening supervision, with the start of the implementation of new rules issued by the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) to regulate the management of healthcare programmes.
These controls aim to impose strict standards of solvency and governance, while obligating companies to fully digitally transform to connect with the authority.
Financial consultant, Wael Fathi, told Al Mal News that market players had waited a while for the new regulations. He pointed out that tightening controls will lead to a convergence in the pricing structure of documents among major companies, so that the large price deviations that were prevalent previously will disappear.
Regarding the cost of coverage, Mr Fathi explained that there is a trend towards price increases in medical insurance policies, but they will be within a limited range, likely not exceeding 10% during the current year. This increase is subject to technical factors such as inflation rates, currency exchange rates, and reinsurance agreements, and is not a random increase resulting from mismanagement.
He predicted that the new rules would lead to a "natural correction" through mergers or acquisitions between companies, considering it a healthy phenomenon to create strong financial and technical entities that are appropriate to the nature of the risks and the speed of price changes.
He pointed out that these moves will shift competition to the technical track, where service providers will offer innovative insurance coverage for diseases that were previously excluded, such as autoimmune diseases and epilepsy.