UAP Old Mutual Group has enhanced its recently launched Afya Imara
Junior medical insurance product for children to include Covid-19 testing and treatment.
The Afya Imara Junior cover was launched as the first ever comprehensive medical cover exclusively for children. Through the cover, children from birth to 18 years of age can access the medical insurance cover without necessarily having to be under their parent’s covers.
Speaking of the enhanced benefit, Japheth Ogalloh, GM Health Business at UAP Old Mutual said: “We have to respond to the times. The Covid-19 pandemic has really changed the environment and the medical business has not been left behind, so we needed to ensure that we are taking care of Covid-19 cases for children.” He added that through the enhanced benefit, the cover allows for both testing as well as hospitalization of affected children.
Japheth said that since the launch of the product and subsequent improvements on the same, there has been marked interest and uptake particularly because it addresses an existing need in the market. He added that there was growth in product uptake since the launch of the product.
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“Medical insurance is a critical cover for Kenyan families especially now that medical expenses have spiralled out of control for many. In addition, there are many reported cases of lifestyle diseases and the likes and one of the gaps that has not been addressed is how we take care of children,” said Japheth. “The insured population are insured under corporate schemes or under family solutions where parents or the principal members who are above 18 are the policy holders. We needed to address the gap for parents who would be looking for their children’s cover without necessarily being part of the cover.”
The cover is structured in three parts including an inpatient benefit which takes care of all admission costs as well as outpatient services and a third option availing access to either all hospitals within the wider UAP Old Mutual network or to Gertrudes Children Hospital, the biggest paediatric facility in the region.
For this product, the pricing model is based on the number of children within a family. For instance, there is an option of sharing the benefits or selecting per-person benefits which allows for flexibility of cover with shared benefits.
Through innovative products such as Afya Imara Junior, UAP Old Mutual aims to grow the penetration of health insurance in the country which stood at a paltry 1 percent in 2019. “The idea is that the solutions that are in the market are not flexible – its either a corporate solution or a family solution but this is going to help the uptake of medical insurance with important factors such as pricing being well considered and legacy restrictions for children’s policies heavily minimized,” concludes Japheth.
