The medical subscription and insurance market generates revenues worth PLN 6.9 billion and will grow by 15-20% annually until 2026, according to the report “Health insurance market in Poland:
a chance for double-digit growth” prepared by PwC Polska. The share of insurance companies in this market will increase from 13% to 20-25% and the main growth factors include an increase in service prices and a growing customer base.
PwC: The medical subscription and insurance market will grow by 15-20% annually
“Expenses on private healthcare will increase by more than 10-15% annually over the next 4 years due to insufficient public funding and the fact that lower quality of public services is driven by private expenses on healthcare in Poland. The expansion of private clinic networks led to a rapid increase in “indirect” expenses, i.e. mainly products of subscription companies and, to a lesser extent, medical insurance. Even if a small part of the population has access to medical subscriptions and private health insurance, patients still spend over PLN 20 billion annually on private care paid per service”, said Arkadiusz Kramza, Partner of PwC Polska, quoted in the release.
The private medicine market will grow thanks to three fundamental factors. Prices of services will increase by 11-13% due to the fact that medical inflation is high and easily transferred to customers. Due to high demand and limited supply of specialists, “medical” inflation will be around 5% above average inflation. The customer base will increase by 5-7%, while the increase in the number of customers in 2016-2020 was nearly 10%. At the same time, we can expect new products to generate new revenue streams on the market, adding an additional 1-3% growth. Market players are investing heavily in expanding their offer in the field of hospital insurance, complementary insurance and the financing of medicines.
“About 70% of companies do not purchase healthcare for their employees. Lack of interest of employees is due to the fact that they will have to finance or co-finance it themselves. Currently 47% of surveyed companies do not participate in the costs of health services and for 19% of respondents, these programmes are co-financed – employers pay about half the price. In terms of the form of service (medical subscription vs. health insurance), there is no strong preference – the type of product is not very important for companies. They simply want good care for their employees”, added Michał Dubno, Director of PwC Polska.
The lack of staff requires investment in IT solutions that improve the efficiency of their work. Support in making appointments with doctors can be achieved through the integration of facilities cooperating with insurers, extensive information about doctors, their specialisations, experience and specificity of the procedures performed as well as the ability to assess the quality of the doctor’s work – rankings, etc. Thanks to patient coordination models, we will reduce unnecessary appointments – the patient will go straight away to the appropriate medical specialist (including a nurse, physiotherapist, internist, specialist doctor), he/she will come for such an appointment with the tests performed, and the
so-called symptom checker will allow them to assess the symptoms of the disease and decide on further steps.
