The private health insurance market may reach RON100 million over the next two years. Deputies recently approved the deduction threshold increase from EUR250 to EUR400 both at the employer and the employee, which is the major reason for the boost of sales.
“The deduction threshold increase for the health insurance products is more than welcomed, this measure being able to boost this sector. Once implemented, we may face an annual average business growth on the health insurance segment by about 20%-25% over the next two or three years,“ said Virgil Ichim, director for the life and health insurance sector with Allianz-Tiriac.
Ichim forecasts an increase by 3%-4% of Allianz employees on the employee benefit insurance sector, namely health insurances purchased by companies for their employees.
In the first quarter of 2015, health insurance policies increased 25%, to 22 million lei, according to Romania’s financial regulator ASF.
Generali insurance company forecasts significant increase of the underwritten health insurance premiums in 2016, taking into account the health insurance share is very small in the company’s portfolio, according to Generali’s CEO Adrian Marin.
The deduction threshold increase also drew the interest of insurers that had not approached this segment. Thus, NN Asigurări de Viata (formerly ING Asigurări de Viata) is looking for new growth opportunities such as health insurances policies in 2016, after touching a 37% market share on the life insurance segment in 18 years on the local market, according to the company’s general manager Marius Popescu. NN Asigurari eyes the health insurance policies touch 5% to 10% of its total business.
Other the other hand, Groupama said it had identified a growth potential of the health insurance market several years ago. “We identified an increased potential in the health insurance sector and we approached it more than two years ago. Now, we have over 40,000 policies in our portfolio,“ said Calin Matei, deputy general manager with Groupama.
Insurance policies and property insurances could represent an important income sources to balance companies’ portfolios, which are currently dominated by Casco and RCA policies.
“We set a priority from developing non-auto insurance segments. Thus, we focus on house and property insurances. Also, we focus on developing health insurances policies, taking into account the forecasted growth as a result of increasing the level of tax deduction level,“ according to Mihai Tecau, president of Omniasig’s Board of Directors.
(English version by Manuela Panescu)