Dialogue between partners: roundtable of leaders from the medical and insurance industries

Voluntary health insurance remains consistently in focus for NAIU’s efforts – participating insurers maintain leadership positions in this segment, while the Office works on tax incentives, digitization, and enhancing collaboration between insurers and their partners.

Continuing the path of public-private partnership, the community also works towards interacting with medical institutions, which are indispensable contributors to the quality of voluntary health insurance services.

Without interfering in the business activities of its participants but moving towards implementing high-level rules and standards in the insurance market, NAIU conducted a Roundtable of leaders from the medical and insurance industries.

The main topics of the meeting were the consolidation of efforts between the medical and insurance industries aimed at developing and utilizing unified approaches and standards for diagnosing and treating the most common diseases covered by medical insurance. This includes prevention and reduction of cases of overdiagnosis, polypragmasy, prescribing medications, and medical procedures without proven effectiveness or objective necessity. Simplifying approaches to interaction between insurers and medical institutions within the framework of regulating insurance cases using unified approaches and standards for diagnosing and treating by medical institutions.

The event allowed participants to openly and thoroughly outline the issues concerning medical institutions and insurers during cooperation, and for the NAIU Office to formulate tasks for its work, as well as identify specialized groups and topics for further collaboration.

We are pleased that the Roundtable has achieved its goal: to become not just a forum for slogans and calls, but a starting point for formulating specific tasks and goals, leading to further joint efforts.

We achieve our goals together

Since February, representatives of the National Bank of Ukraine have been holding meetings with participants of the insurance market. The purpose of these meetings has been to discuss urgent and relevant issues arising during the alignment of insurers’ activities with the requirements of the new Insurance Law and regulatory acts of the National Bank adopted for its implementation.

The request for such communication was formulated by the market last year, and in December, during a meeting of insurers with the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine, we received approval for this work. The number of questions, answers, and participants in these meetings, which took place every Tuesday, is measured in hundreds, and the duration – in tens of hours.

Before each meeting, insurers studied the regulatory act, assessed its impact on their activities, identified problematic and unresolved issues, and formulated them. The NAIU office consolidated the requests of its participants and forwarded them to the Regulator. We can only imagine the incredible amount of preparatory work that the NBU has conducted to organize and conduct these meetings, and we can state that as a result, insurers received not only answers regarding the interpretation of individual provisions, but also the regulator’s vision, ideas underlying the norms, and the goal that we jointly strive to achieve.

We are grateful to the National Bank, especially to Serhii Savchuk and Lesia Burbel from the Department of Methodology for the Regulation of Non-Bank Financial Institutions, Tetiana Mosiichuk and Yulia Khristolyubska from the Department of Market Supervision of Non-Bank Financial Services, the Licensing Department, and other departments involved in the meetings. We are convinced that the guidelines received are a significant contribution to the successful preparation of insurers for the updated regulation currently underway.

There is still much work ahead, and questions continue to arise during the implementation of new requirements for insurers. We are grateful that this dialogue continues and that the NBU is open to explanations and communication with market participants.

Brief overview of the insurance market for 2023 from NAIU

Traditionally, the National Bank of Ukraine today presented its prepared Review of the Non-Banking Financial Sector for 2023.

In the review, the NBU noted that during the last quarter, gross premiums from non-life insurance decreased by 2% compared to the third quarter, but increased by 17% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Payouts increased by 15% quarter-on-quarter and by 39% year-on-year. Premiums for life insurance saw significant growth both quarterly and annually: by 22% and 19% respectively. At the same time, payout volumes increased significantly: by 19% quarter-on-quarter and by 41% year-on-year.

The National Association of Insurers of Ukraine has prepared its own observations on trends and activities of insurers in the Short Overview of the Insurance Market for 2023. Analyzing 2023, NAIU can say that despite all the challenges and risks faced by insurers, the insurance market demonstrates resilience and gradual recovery. Only 5% separate the non-life insurance market from the premiums of the “pre-war” 2021. And NAIU member insurers in 2023 were just 0.1% short of the premiums of 2021.

The insurance market shows positive trends across various indicators observed throughout the year. This includes an increase in the number of insured persons and insurance payments, a decrease in redemption payouts, and an increase in new business volume.

The indicators, trends, and highlights collected through our PDMA. The review can be downloaded here, or viewed in the images.

Also, we would like to remind you that you can independently explore indicators, trends, and dynamics, make comparisons, and make informed choices here.

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