The… clearing out of insured persons with lifetime health policies by companies is in full swing, through the imposition of “inflated” premiums, as the old and “generous” insurance programs have very high compensation costs.
At the same time, companies are burdened with high costs from elderly insured persons, which also explains the equally steep increases in their premiums.
The data released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), announcing the new Annual Adjustment Index for long-term health insurance (EDA) for 2024, confirm that insurers are “emptying” their portfolios of old health policies at a fairly rapid pace, policies which are no longer offered, while those who still have such policies from the past are faced with large premium increases, which often lead them to cancel their programs.
More specifically, as reflected in ELSTAT’s data,
- Between the years 2022 and 2024, insured persons with long-term (lifetime) policies decreased by 31,819 people (from 272,659 in 2022, they fell to 240,840 in 2024). Obviously, part of this decrease is also due to deaths of insured persons, but for the most part it is explained by policy cancellations.
- By contrast, insured persons with annually renewable policies were higher by 152,903 people, reaching 707,818 in 2024 from 554,915 in 2022, an increase of almost 28%.
Lifetime programs are a “wound”
Lifetime policies constitute an economic “wound” for companies, which to a large extent of course are paying for their own mistakes of the past, when they offered very generous coverage to attract insured persons, but it is now proving that their calculations for costs were completely wrong.
It is characteristic that in 2024, the compensation paid by insurers for lifetime programs amounted to 229 million euros, an amount that was not much lower than the corresponding compensation for annual programs, which amounted to 254 million euros. This happened despite the fact that the number of insured persons in annual programs was almost three times that of lifetime ones.
The costs of lifetime programs are outrageously higher than those of annual ones, where coverage has been “trimmed.” It is characteristic that for each insured person, on average, companies pay 950 euros per year in lifetime programs, an amount 2.6 times greater than the corresponding cost in annual programs.
Age… bomb for companies
In order to measure the average annual change in hospitalization expenses (the net cost of coverage) paid by insurance companies, ELSTAT compiles, based on the new legislation, the Annual Adjustment Index (EDA), which from next year will constitute the reference point for premium increases. The new index reveals that the aging of the population is the most threatening factor in the surge of insurance costs for companies and, correspondingly, of the premiums charged.
As ELSTAT points out, for the year 2024:
- In long-term contracts, the annual change in the adjustment index with the effect of age was 7.23%, while without the effect of age it was only 1.76%.
- In annually renewable contracts, the annual change with the effect of age amounted to 5.36%, while without its effect it was only 0.79%.
The EDA, with the incorporation of the age factor, gets a… surcharge that was 5.3% for 2022, which rises to 10.7% in 2023 and shoots up to 16% in 2024, according to ELSTAT.
The “storm” of increases in 2026
Continuing its policy of pressuring insured persons with lifetime programs to pay more or close their policies, insurance companies imposed large premium increases in 2026, before the EDA index was published, which sets some limits on this policy.
According to the aggregate processing by the Independent Authority for Market Control and Consumer Protection (AAEA&PK), where data from 11 companies were analyzed and concern a sample of 231,797 insured persons with active long-term health policies, the net base premiums of 2025 amounted to 295.44 million euros (before premium tax).
From the analysis of the 2026 increases, the following highly interesting findings emerge:
- When weighting is based on the number of insured persons, the average is formed at 7.49%.
- When weighting is based on the value of premiums (net financial burden), the average increase rises to 8.20%.
- More than half of the insured persons underwent significant adjustments. Specifically, for 130,119 insured persons (56.13% of the sample) the increase exceeded 8%. At the same time, 36,923 insured persons (15.93%) saw their premium increase by more than 9%.
In its announcement, the AAEA&PK sounds the alarm about companies’ practices, emphasizing the following lack of transparency, although it did not proceed with procedures for the imposition of sanctions, even though in the past large fines had been imposed, which also received the “blessings” of the Council of State with a recent decision.
More specifically, the Authority notes that, in many cases, hospital costs are not clearly separated from age-related change and the other contractual adjustment terms.
In addition, the letters to insured persons do not have a uniform format. They often omit basic information, such as the simultaneous indication of the old and the new premium, the exact percentage of increase, as well as a clear explanation of the calculation basis.