Insurance authorities are set to discuss the problems facing the private firms providing supplemental health insurances in the next session of the Supreme Council of Insurance, according to the minister of cooperatives, labor and social welfare.
“Supplemental health insurances are part of Iran’s insurance system whose problems have to be addressed,” IRNA quoted Minister Ali Rabi’ee as saying on Saturday.
Rabi’ee urged private insurance firms to cooperate with officials at the ministries of labor and health who can help them resolve their problems.
The minister did not specify the problems of the private sector regarding supplemental insurance.
Supplemental health insurance is an extra service provided by private insurers to help fill the gaps and cover the costs related to recovery from major illnesses that are not fully covered by the Social Security Organization—the body in charge of providing public health insurance.
Insurers in Iran play a key role in the healthcare sector. The Business Monitor International (BMI) forecast in an October report that insurance premiums will rise from $1.9 billion in 2015 to $2.3 billion in 2018. Macroeconomic instability and entrenched market issues are suppressing growth in premiums, the report asserted.
Helath insurance is, and will remain, the second largest of the various sub-sectors of the non-life segment, BMI predicted, the first being Compulsory Motorists’ Third Party Insurance (CMTPL).
The fluctuation in the growth rate of premiums will present a major challenge to Iranain health insurers, the report said.
