-Daman currently receives approximately more than 220,000 claims per month

-Daman launched the "1 million steps competition"

Abu Dhabi, 20 April 2008: The National Health Insurance Company - Daman announced today that it has enrolled its one millionth member and celebrated this milestone by awarding the members number 999,999,  1,000,000 and 1,000,001, who belonged to various Daman health insurance plans.

With a market share in Abu Dhabi of around 80%, Daman is the leading company in the UAE Health Insurance Industry, as it covers more than 1,000,000 members. Since the beginning of operations in mid 2006, Daman has inaugurated 8 branches, in Hamdan Street, Airport Road, Al Bateen, Bede' Zayed, Mussafah, Madinat Zayed, Dubai and Al Ain.

Dr. Michael Bitzer, CEO of Daman announced that more than 70% of the members came through groups while the rest were enrolled as individuals. He also stated that Daman was able during the last 2 years to hire more than 900 professional employees working in its fully fledged branches located all over the Emirate as well as their Dubai office. Dr. Bitzer announced that Daman is already covering all Emirates and to date is already insuring over 12,000 members from other Emirates.

Dr. Bitzer also said : "In less that two years, Daman has become the leading health insurance company in the UAE and a responsible Corporate Citizen.

On behalf of Daman I would like to thank the government, the board of directors,  our clients & healthcare providers, without whom this success would not have been possible. This gives us a great drive to further improve and enhance our services and plans to stay up to your expectations.

I would also like to thank our employees, who have shown incredible commitment and enthusiasm over the course of the past two years. I would like to say to them, that together we have overcome the hardest part and established for ourselves a brand to be reckoned with in the health insurance industry of the MENA region.

Dr. Bitzer added: "With such impeccable force driving our success, we will continue to surpass all expectations and frontiers."

Daman has taken a number of initiatives, one of which would include the launch of a seminar in May 2008 to provide an update on the significant changes the healthcare and health insurance industries have seen in the recent years in the Gulf, Middle East and North Africa (MENA Region).

Daman will also launch a Health Awareness Programme that will consists of a series of lectures held in both Arabic and English to promote patient awareness, self-care behaviours, and informed decision making. The lectures are open to the public and will be held starting April covering, Diabetes, Obesity, and Hypercholesterolemia. 

Daman has also launched the 1 Million Steps Competition for students to raise awareness on child obesity and the importance of exercise. 100 students from each school are expected to walk collectively 1 million steps in one  day, where special pedometers sent to school will track the number of steps achieved by each student. 

Dr. Bitzer commented: "Our success is not only measured by our profits or number of claims, but also by being a contributing corporate citizen. The notion of enabling the community is engraved into our corporate strategy; we will continue to give back to the community as we grow and progress."

-Ends-

© Press Release 2008