Premiums written in sickness/health branch stood at 16 million 872 thousand USD in 2016, accounting for 10.44 percent of overall premiums of Turkish insurance market. This branch has more than 6 million 100 thousand policyholders, 74.92 percent of which have individual policies and 25.08 percent have group policies. Agents are the dominant distribution channel of this line with a share of 48.21 percent.

Sickness/health branch accounts for 11.92 percent of non-life insurance premiums and 10.44 percent of total insurance premiums of Turkish market. As for its sub-branches, most of the premiums written in this branch are produced by health insurance; while the share of travel health insurance stands at 2 percent and sickness branch accounts for 1.41 percent. The branch is dominated by individual policyholders, and the most productive distribution channels are agents and brokers. After complementary health insurance became effective, health insurance began to spread farther and wider. 

According to the statistics by the Insurance Association of Turkey (T.S.B), premium production of sickness/health branch stood at 1 billion 196 million USD at the end of 2016. The production level was 254 million 245 thousand USD in January, which increased by 97.71 percent until the end of Q1, reaching 502 million 977 thousand USD. At the end of Q2, premiums increased to 802 million 508 thousand USD, up by 59.65 percent over the first quarter; and to 1 billion 9 million USD at the end of Q3, up by 25.74 percent over the second quarter. At year end, premiums reached 1 billion 196 million USD increasing by 18.62 percent over the previous quarter. (Growth rates were higher in TL based results. USD rates were lower due to the increasing USD/TL parity).

Sickness/health branch consists of 3 sub-categories including sickness, health and travel health insurance. During 2016, the highest increase inside this branch was reported in the sickness sub-branch; which grew by 15.98 times from January to December and from 1 million 56 thousand USD to 16 million 872 thousand USD. Health sub-branch grew by 4.6 times within the year, increasing from 251 million 126 thousand USD in January to 2 million 63 thousand USD in December. Travel health insurance grew by 11.58 times from the first month to the end of the year, escalating from 2 million 63 thousand USD to 23 million 891 thousand USD. Total premium production in sickness/health branch grew by 4.71 times during the year.

Most policyholders in this branch have individual policies. According to the statistics announced by Insurance Information and Monitoring Center (S.B.M); 1 million 193 thousand people benefit from group policies, while 3 million 564 thousand people own individual policies. In other words, 74.92 percent of policyholders in sickness/health branch are individual policyholders, and 25.08 percent have group policies. 

Health sub-branch holds 96.59 percent of premiums and 74.21 percent of policies, travel health sub-branch holds 2 percent of premiums and 25.11 percent of policies, and sickness sub-branch holds 1.41 percent of premiums and 0.67 percent of policies”

Among the sub-branches of sickness/health insurance, health holds 96.59 percent of premiums, travel health holds 2 percent, and sickness holds 1.41 percent.
As to the number of policies; health sub-branch dominates the branch with a share of 74.21 percent. Travel health insurance accounts for 25.11 percent of policies, while the share of sickness sub-branch is 0.67 percent.

Sickness/health insurance consists of 3 sub-branches; while the health sub-branches has 3 categories of itself including emergency health insurance, complementary health insurance and health insurance.

“50.2 percent of premiums in health sub-branch come from the health category; while emergency health insurance premiums account for 36.24 percent in this sub-branch, complementary health insurance accounts for 8.94 percent and health insurance for foreigners account for 4.62 percent”

Health sub-branch is dominated by the health category, holding 50.2 percent of premiums; while emergency health insurance premiums account for 36.24 percent in this sub-branch, complementary health insurance accounts for 8.94 percent and health insurance for foreigners accounts for 4.62 percent.

Agents and brokers dominate the sickness/health insurance branch by producing the highest amount of premiums. Agents account for 48.21 percent of premiums written in this branch; while 30.01 percent are written by brokers, 12.22 percent are written by direct sales and 9.52 percent are written by the banks. Share of agents increased considerably during the time between January and December, while the share of other lines decreased continuously throughout the year. The highest amount of premiums written by agents were produced during September with a share of 48.89 percent.

“İstanbul holds 54.81 percent of individual health insurance policies”

Most of individual policies in this branch were issued in İstanbul with a share of 54.81 percent. Policies issued in Ankara follow with a share of 6.81 percent, while Antalya ranks third with a share of 5.03 percent. Individual health insurance policies issued in İzmir hold a share of 4.59 percent, while Bursa is the fifth city with a share of 3.36 percent in individual health insurance policies.

“Most preferred payment methods are cash and credit card”

For every sub-branch, payment methods vary depending on whether the policies are group or individual policies. Most preferred methods are cash and credit card. According to 2016 averages, 30.5 percent of individual policies in health branch are paid with credit cards; while 29.8 percent of group policies are paid via bank channel. Cash payment dominates both individual and group travel health insurance premium payments with shares of 42.4 percent and 37.7 percent respectively; as well as emergency health insurance premiums (individual policies 43.1 percent, group policies with 68 percent).  Majority of individual complementary health insurance policies are paid through account withdrawals with a share of 50.8 percent; while 57.4 percent of group policies in this category are paid in cash. As to sickness sub-branch, 36.5 percent of payments for individual policies are made via credit card; while 100 percent of group policies are paid in cash.

At the end of 2016, 97 percent of policies issued in sickness sub-branch are valid, while 3 percent of them are terminated. 96 percent of health policies are valid and 4 percent of them are terminated; whereas this proportion in emergency health insurance policies is 81 to 19. Travel health insurance consists of 95 percent valid policies and 5 percent terminated policies; and complementary health insurance policies consist of 87 percent valid policies and 13 percent terminated policies.

Though the insurance rates in sickness/health branch have not reached the desired levels; changes in sub-branches reflect positively on results. Especially complementary health insurance line aims to expand the popularity of sickness/health insurance among consumers.