Private Health Insurance Costs Are Increasing in Portugal: An Average of 39 Euros a Month Out of Pocket

Living in Portugal, we all know how busy the public healthcare system (PNS) is; As the process of finding appointments and waiting in emergency departments becomes longer, private health insurance is no longer a luxury, but a mandatory part of daily life. However, recent data show that the cost of this assurance is increasing.

According to figures shared by the Portuguese Association of Insurers (APS), someone with private health insurance in the country pays an average of 466 euros in premiums per year. This is a net increase of 9.1% compared to last year and corresponds to an average item in the monthly budget of 39 euros.

Prices Increased More Than the Number of Customers

When we look at the total revenues of the sector, we see that the 1 billion euro threshold was exceeded with a jump of 10.3% in the first half of the year. The interesting thing is that the increase in the number of insured people has remained at only 2.6%.

In other words, the main reason why the money entering the companies' coffers has grown so much is the increases in policy prices and serious price updates in renewed contracts. The high cost of living is directly reflected in insurance premiums.

Policies Made Through Companies Predominantly

The locomotive of growth in the market was again corporate, that is, group insurance. Thanks to the policies offered by companies as fringe benefits to their employees, more than 70 thousand new people were added to the system and the total number of insured people in this field reached 2.07 million. The number of people who purchase personal insurance out of their own pocket is around 1.85 million people, an increase of approximately 28 thousand.

Hospitals and Clinics Are Overflowing

Not only paying premiums, policies are also used actively in the field. In the first six months of the year, approximately 1.7 million people knocked on the doors of private hospitals and clinics.

As a result of this intensive use, compensation and treatment payments covered by insurance companies increased by 7.4% compared to the same period last year, reaching 519.2 million euros. It seems that, despite the increasing costs, people do not take the risk of waiting for health care and continue to allocate budget for private insurance.

Source: Bruno G. Santos / Portuguese Insurers Association (APS)

Photo: Scott Graham / Unsplash