Insurance companies announced increases of 7% on average for lifelong health insurance policies for 2025, revising the hikes they had announced a few days ago, which reached 14.6%.
Ethniki Insurance was the first to revise the increases, while Eurolife, Generali and Interamerican announced single-digit increases on Tuesday, with NN Hellas, Ergo and others expected to follow.
The new tariffs follow pressure by the government and Development Minister Takis Theodorikakos, who requested that the double-digit increases do not apply for 2025, although they were based on the increase in hospitalizations and the cost of health services.
“We will absorb the short-term burden that this decision will bring to our results,” noted Ethniki CEO Dimitris Mazarakis in a statement, “in order to support the effort to find a sustainable solution that will ensure consumer protection, the maintenance of the capital adequacy of insurance companies, as well as the control of the cost and quality of health services, for the benefit of Greek society.”
From Generali’s perspective, the total increase will be around 6.9% on average, effective for the whole of 2025, while Eurolife and Interamerican announced that the hikes for 2025 will be at 50% of the health index of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE).
In their announcements, the insurance companies defended the reliability of the IOBE index, while the foundation’s general director, Nikos Vettas, also made statements on the issue, noting that “we cannot blame the measurement for the phenomenon of increases, some of which are reasonable and some of which are not and have to do with the structure of the market.”
The 14.6% increase in the cost of claims (together with the age increase) resulting from the IOBE index is based on the increased frequency of loss occurrence in 2023 to 19.5% (one in five insured people fell ill) and on the increase in the average cost of loss to 4,563 euros, from €4,375 in 2022.
The ministry has announced its intention to assign the compilation of the health index to ELSTAT, whose measurement presents significant deviations compared to the IOBE index.