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Is medical insurance permissible in countries like US/Canada where costs are high?

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Muftisays.com
AssalamoAlaikum Wa Rehmatullah

I have gone through
http://www.muftisays.com/qa/question/753/medical-insurance.html

I need to know if there is any relaxation/permission of medical insurance in countries like US/Canada where the medical costs are too high sometimes. Just to mention the hospital costs can be up to 10,000 $ / night for example for the case of child birth delivery. It can be imagined what If some person has to stay 3,4 nights.
Based on the average monthly income and the economic structure in these places, I need your highly esteemed opinion , in what should be the way adopted by muslims who seek to obey Allah’s orders.

MAY Allah keep us all , on absolute straight path. Ameen
JazakAllah kher

Usman

Answer
Bismillah

Al-jawab billahi at-taufeeq (the answer with Allah’s guidance)

As mentioned, all forms of conventional insurance including medical insurance will be unlawful.

As far as the alternative is concerned, Islamic financial institutions offer Takaful, a form of co-operative insurance or mutual insurance (At Ta’meen At Ta’awuni). (see: Darse Tirmidhi Vol.4)

N.B. Takaful, where members contribute money into a pooling system in order to guarantee each other against loss or damage and it is the responsibility of the individuals to co-operate and protect each other.

If however, there are no alternatives; because of the high cost of medical bill in some countries which has become very difficult on normal people to pay for their treatment without having medical insurance. For this reason, some ‘Ulama have giving a leeway for the permissibility of medical insurance. This is based on the Fiqhi principle:

“Adh Dharuraat Tubeehul Mahzuraat” (Necessities permit the prohibited)

(Al Ashbah Wan Nazair Pg. 87)

Therefore, it would be permissible for a Muslim to take medical insurance. However, one should know that the leeway is based on necessity. This leeway should not be abused to the extent that one benefits from its unnecessary reasons.

And Only Allah Ta’ala Knows Best.

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Moulana Qamruz Zaman
London, UK

Original Source Link

This answer was collected from MuftiSays.com, based in London (UK). It is one of the fruits of Darul Uloom London. Many ‘ulama are involved in answering the Q&A on the site, including: Shaikul Hadeeth Mufti Umar Farooq Sahib, Mufti Saifur Rahman Sahib, Mufti Abdullah Patel Sahib, Maulana Qamruz Zaman Sahib, Mufti Abu Bakr Karolia Sahib.

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