Listen to the article
The costs of medical care are experiencing strong inflation. Major private insurance companies in the Lebanese market, contacted by Ici Beirut, indicated that their health insurance premiums will be increased from January 1.eh July, by about 10% compared to their current level.
The decision to increase health insurance premiums comes in a market that has been in decline for several years, undermined by the erosion of consumer purchasing power and fierce competition between players, often to the detriment of their profit margins. To make matters worse, the National Social Security Fund (CNSS), once the public flagship for the management of state social benefits, is crumbling.
Failed meeting
The rise in health insurance premiums and the CNSS’s failure to pay its dues to third-party payers were at the center of debates at the emergency meeting called last Wednesday by the outgoing finance minister, Amine Salam, minister in charge of private insurers. A meeting that brought together representatives of the Association of Insurance Companies in Lebanon (Acal), the Medical Order and the Association of Private Hospitals. As expected, no recommendations or concrete decisions were made at the end of this meeting.
Cost-driven inflation
Interviewed by Ici Beirut, insurance companies explained that the increase in health insurance premiums is driven by cost inflation. In particular, they mentioned the increase in medical fees, the result of an agreement signed in May 2023 between Acal and the Medical Association, which allows for a gradual increase in medical fees until May 2024. The prices, which previously ranged from $35 to $45, now from $70 to $100 .
Then they discussed the drastic reduction of government subsidies for medical care and medicine, so that private insurance companies would have to bear the entire financial cost. For example, each chemotherapy session for cancer patients costs between $5,000 and $7,000, while a specific injection can cost nearly $22,000.
In the process, they pointed an accusing finger at importers of medical devices and prostheses, urging them to stabilize their prices to allow them to adjust their premiums.
On his part, outgoing Economy Minister Amine Salam criticized the greed of some medical equipment importers, lamenting that their profit margins reach 50% to 70%. “These profits are then found in hospital bills, patients’ and ultimately insurance companies’,” he noted.
Streamline medical procedures
The insurance companies interviewed also condemned the abuse of hospitals and treating doctors, who prescribe medical examinations and unfairly prolong hospital stays.
In response to a question, a French-Lebanese doctor practicing in Beirut and southern France anonymously assessed that the state must establish the basis of a health policy that allows medical procedures to be rationalized without necessarily standardizing them. However, he acknowledged that it is difficult to reconcile efficiency and effectiveness in practice.
Inflation of 23%
An actuarial study, cited by several insurance companies, revealed a 23% inflation rate in the cost of medical procedures and care from 2023 to 2024, without accounting for medical malpractice. Thus, the 10% increase in health insurance premiums remains lower than real inflation, according to industry professionals.
If this increase is justified according to the insurance companies, it is a severe blow to families whose budgets will necessarily be called into question. According to figures from the Ministry of Economy, 500,000 Lebanese and non-Lebanese residents have private health insurance.
