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In Parliament on Thursday, Development Minister Takis Theodorikakos tabled an amendment providing for the obligation of insurance companies to publish their premium hikes in hospital programs, as well as of health providers to publish the prices of their services.
Regarding insurance companies, the obligation to publish increases concerns all health insurance products – not just lifelong insurance policies – and as the amendment provides, the adjustments will be published in a separate section on the insurance company’s website.
For lifelong insurance policies, the increases from 2026 will be linked to the Annual Long-Term Health Insurance Adjustment Index (EDA) that will be published by ELSTAT in December. This provision excludes long-term health contracts in which there is a condition for non-adjustment of premiums or for fixed adjustment of premiums. For the calculation of the new index by ELSTAT, following the opinion of the governor of the Bank of Greece, there will be a decision by the competent ministries, which will determine the parameters to be used.
Accordingly, health service providers – including clinics and diagnostic centers – are required to publicly announce the prices of their services for each type of medical or nursing procedure they offer to consumers, as well as the amount of adjustment of their price from the immediately previous price. The announcement is made in the form of a price list, on a separate page of the company’s website titled “health service prices.” The announcement, as provided for in the amendment, must include at least the name of the medical service, the price at which it is offered to consumers, the date of entry into force of the adjustment, the date of application of the immediately previous price, and the percentage of the price adjustment in comparison to the previous price.
In this way, according to the ministry, the phenomenon of the lack of price transparency in the markets for health insurance services and the provision of private health services will be addressed.