Since the beginning of the pandemic caused by the corona virus, the citizens of Serbia have mostly bought voluntary health insurance policies. At the end of the second quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year, sales of this type of insurance increased by 18.2 percent, which corresponds to the growth from last year compared to 2019. This confirmed the position of insurers that the greatest potential on the Serbian market has voluntary health insurance. The main reason is the corona virus, because in Serbia, state health institutions mainly take care of corona patients, while everyone else has a problem to provide themselves with the most basic examinations and health care, explains Dusko Jovanovic, Secretary General of the Association of Insurers of Serbia.
How does voluntary health insurance work?
Policies are bought in insurance companies, with everyone, for themselves or family members, choosing the coverage package, ie the level of health care they need. This may include surgery or treatment abroad. The price also depends on the chosen protection package, and the payment of the policy is monthly. The basic package is, for people under 30, a little over 10 euros per month.
What are the benefits of private health insurance?
In short, they are fast, efficient and easily accessible medical care, with the possibility of choosing a clinic. The voluntary health insurance policy provides inpatient and outpatient treatment and includes immediate visits to the doctor, without endless queues and loss of time. Along with the comfort and quality of health service, that is the biggest advantage of treatment with this policy, which provides 24-hour protection throughout the year.
That insurance experienced an expansion in our market when foreign companies and international employee organizations first started paying for that type of insurance. At the beginning, as a kind of reward or additional benefit with which they wanted to keep the employee’s rewards. Today, this insurance is increasingly bought by individuals who want adequate medical care and nursing. Jovanovic also explains that there are individual, family and collective, ie policies for employees in one company.
The panelists of the Serbian Insurance Days will be NBS Governor Jorgovanka Tabaković, who will open the conference and without whose help and recommendations the insurance market would not remain stable during this crisis, Ministers Darija Kisić Tepavčević and Aleksandar Vulin, Assistant Minister of Finance Ognjen Popović, Protector of Citizens Zoran Pašalić. Director of the Post of Serbia Zoran Djordjevic, representatives of the profession from Serbia and the region, as well as representatives of the World Bank and Insurance Europe.
It turned out in practice that with this policy, the number of days spent on sick leave is significantly reduced, because diseases are detected in the early stages. By the way, the citizens of Serbia, on average, spend about 300 euros a year for treatment in private clinics. With that money, the purchase of a voluntary health insurance policy provides at least 1,000 euros to cover various health services, adds Jovanović.
That will be one of the topics at the upcoming Serbian Insurance Days. What do you expect from that round table?
If the state system continues to be dedicated only to the pandemic, as it has been so far, we will have an even bigger problem in the long run. The fact is that the current treatment of all those who are not endangered by the corona virus is difficult and it is not sustainable. We want to find and offer the state a solution, and whether it is the transfer of part of the competencies in the treatment of patients with corona to private health care or more people should be allowed to be treated in private clinics or the solution is something else, we will hear at the Serbian Insurance Days. The participants of that round table will be the Minister of Labor and Employment Darija Kisić Tepavčević, senior. d. HIF directors Sanja Radojević Škodrić, Marija Rabrenović from the Association of Private Health Institutions and Miloš Milanović from Dunav osiguranje.
What else will be discussed at the conference?
The predominant theme will be the pandemic. Have we changed and how much, what have we learned, are we ready for a new similar crisis. We will talk about the future of life insurance and the importance and role of the Protector of Citizens, all through the prism of a pandemic. We will also hear lectures on cyber risk, the Solvency II directive, and damage prevention. At the moment, the insurance market of Serbia, despite the pandemic, is stable and growing. We want to see how achievable this is in the long run. We do not want the decline and minuses that other insurance markets have, and the Serbian Insurance Days will help us see which solutions are the best, Dnevnik reports.
