As the pandemic has slowly begun to be controlled in Turkey, impacts of this period on our society have started to manifest themselves. Perception and social awareness about private health insurance was significantly low before the emergence of COVID-19; but our society once again witnessed the importance of health, as the risk rapidly took control of our lives.
Uğur Gülen, CEO of Aksigorta (a subsidiary of Sabancı Holding), highlighted that health is the most important thing in life. “COVID-19 pandemic showed us that health is actually a huge risk and could stop our lives in the blink of an eye. This pandemic made our society better understand the value of our health. In that sense, I can say that social awareness, which was exceptionally low before the pandemic, has risen considerably for health insurance. Insurance rates decreased remarkably in nearly all insurance lines with the impacts of the pandemic; however, on the contrary, we saw that demand for health insurance increased.”
We became conscious about health insurance
Uğur Gülen added that health insurance grew by 25 percent since March. “The only positive influence of the pandemic has been the increase of awareness about health insurance. Complementary Health Insurance policies increased by 10 percent during this period. Apart from the pandemic, population statistics indicate that life expectancy has increased. And as life is extended, chronical illnesses increase in parallel. In the past, majority of hospital visits were related to acute illnesses; but today, the situation has reversed. Today, 65% to 70% of hospital visits are due to chronical illnesses. In that sense, life expectancy will considerably increase the need for better health, and therefore, health insurance.
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