Eureko: Only 30% of health insurance policies are sold to companies

Insurance company Eureko (formerly Interamerican), a member of Dutch financial group Eureko, with an over 30% share of the health insurance market, underwrote 10 million RON (2.4 million euros) in gross premiums on this segment, down by almost 3% against 2008.

"On the segment of health insurance we had almost the same level of gross underwritten premiums as in 2008. However, whereas in 2008 corporate clients accounted for 60% of the portfolio, while the rest were individual clients, last year corporate clients only made up 25-35% of the portfolio. My interpretation is that health insurance, originally paid by the employer, was later paid by employees, who became aware of the benefits," said Carmen Radu, deputy manager of Eureko, in an interview given to ZF.

A lot of companies, caught up in the cost-cutting trend, no longer offered health insurance to their employees. Health insurance nonetheless benefits individuals because the annual price of insurance is lower than the cumulated price of the medical services offered in the package.

The health insurance market is still in an incipient development stage, collecting only 28.2 million RON (7.7 million euros) in 2008, being dominated by Eureko and Allianz-Tiriac, with an around 36% share each.