Insurance loses out to subscriptions on private medical services market

The boom of private clinics recorded over the last few years is attributed by some insurance companies to a fiscal loophole, which allows employers to spend unlimited amounts for employees, in the form of subscriptions for occupational medicine services. “Occupational medicine is not considered a benefit for employees, they don’t pay taxes or social security contributions, while for the employer, it is fully deductible. This is a very good thing, but this fiscal treatment has led to the development of a market parallel to the insurance market, one that is not regulated. It would be ideal for insurance to be treated the same as occupational medicine,” says Theodor Alexandrescu, general manager of AIG Life, the second largest company on the life insurance market. For their part, clinics say their expansion was generated by lab services, for which they have contracts with insurance and imaging centres. Currently, the difference between the value of the subscriptions market and that of health insurance is obvious. Private clinics sell around 350,000 subscriptions in all, and if one considers an average subscription of 100 euros per year, the market amounts to 35 million euros. On the other hand, the private health insurance market is put at around 8-10 million euros.