Health insurance for scholarship students in the US was provided by Aetna, but now the contract has been given to United Health Care.

Scholarship students in various countries have grown increasingly concerned about delays in renewals of health insurance cards.

The Saudi cultural attaché to the US, Dr. Mohammed Al-Eissa, has clarified that the delays resulted from a change in the health insurance company and that students have begun to receive their new insurance cards.

“Health insurance for scholarship students in the US was provided by Aetna, but we are currently partnered with United Health Care,” said Al-Essa. Meanwhile, a local newspaper quoted parents of scholarship students complaining that their children faced difficulties in the recent period due to being forced to cover their own health care costs, with treatments exceeding $1,000 for minor cases.

“My daughter still does not have medical insurance, thus leaving her with financial difficulties as she suffers from asthma, which requires expensive medicine and often requires her to spend hours getting treatment at the hospital,” says the father of Nora, a scholarship student in the US. “She and a group of her colleagues are still pursuing the department of scholarship affairs to obtain an answer about the status of their insurance, but to no avail, and we have hope that students will be reimbursed should their health insurance cards be issued once again.”

He said health insurance cards have been delayed for more than two months.

In Turkey, scholarship students still have no idea as to the causes behind the delays in the renewal of their health insurance cards. “There is a problem and we do not know why,” one of the students was quoted as saying by a local newspaper.

In the UK, despite scholarship students receiving a letter from the cultural mission, containing complete instructions and information about the health insurance services, the new cards have yet to arrive.

The Saudi cultural attaché in London emphasized in a letter to students the importance of “ensuring the accuracy of information on new insurance cards and to contact the department if any information needs to be corrected, with the understanding that the card is issued for personal use only by the cardholder and cannot be used by anyone else.”

However, the students are still waiting for their new cards to arrive.

Related articles across the web

• Blazing Minds Makes it Through to the #UKBA16 Finals
• UK press takes swipe at Assange and UN panel
• West Ham's new stadium has been built on some very shaky ground
• As Yemen Bleeds UK Arms Profits Bury Human Rights
• Information Security Events For February
• Yemen: UK Parliamentary Committee Calls for Halt to Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia, Moots International Inquiry into Alleged International Law Abuses
• A look at Iranian newspaper front pages on Feb 6
• £27 million for disabled people's living costs in Wales
• As Yemen Bleeds UK Arms Profits Bury Human Rights
• UK cosmetic surgery figures reach record level