Regulation of Private Health Insurance Premiums

In the context of amendment to the Insurance Supervisory Law currently in preparation it has been envisaged to waive pulic control over private health insurance premiums. However, given the peculiarities of the market for private health insurance such a move would give rise to problems of consumer protection. The existing system, on the one hand, provides a client with only insufficient information on price and quality before he signs a contract; after signing, on the other hand, he may correct his decision only at (often substantial) costs. Thus, unregulated competition is not working in the health insurance market, calling for public control. This holds in any case for single-person contracts, with some reservations also for group insurance arrangements.