Medical insurance in Emirates Airline?

I’ve got many e-mails and testimonies of employees who complain on inefficient and even cruel medical insurance system in Emirates Airline. The truth is that ground staff got (some of ) the medical insurance only couple of months ago and there was a rumour that company allowed it due to governmental pressure to provide it.

You are free to share your experience with Emirates medical insurance here since it is obviously a sore point for many.

This is a quotation of one medical insurance related comment on this blog.

Keep in mind that I will delete all rude comments about Indians or any other nationality. You are free to discuss this comment in a civilized and polite way by presenting arguments for your opinion. 

Medical insurance in Emirates Airline

NaditaD

Hi All. Its probably worth understanding that EK employees do not have actual health insurance provided by a health insurance company. Emirates is self-insured. Unlike normal insurance where the employees pay part of their coverage and the company pays part of the coverage to a third party insurance company which specializes in managing health and wellness as well as reviewing, and paying claims, Emirates uses the money paid into insurance by employees to cover health expenses and ultimately, turns a profit on this aspect of the business. There is some re-insurance for very expensive claims, but in general the job of ‘Medical Benefits Administration’ is to pay out as little as possible in employee health claims. Secondly, the people who evaluate medical claims are, in general, MD’s from India (4 year degree), with little or no direct experience with patients. If you happen to get one of these folks who does not understand the medical condition you are experiencing, they will likely simply not approve the claim and force you to appeal, just to pass the claim to another person. Emirates will likely never give up this system, even though it is wildly inefficient, and likely ultimately more expensive than just giving their business to a real insurance company, because they want to have control over their employees.