Increasing health expenditures in the last 1.5 years, in which we have better understood the value of being healthy with the pandemic, create an additional burden on financial expenses. Nihat Kırmızı, CEO of Doğa Digorta, spoke about the issue and said: “Ever-increasing health expenditures are no longer burdened by the wide coverage provided by complementary health insurances, including treatment costs caused by COVID-19.”

Nowadays, when we understand the value of our health much better with the pandemic, health expenditures are also increasing more and more. According to the 2021 report of the World Health Organization, health expenditures in Europe showed a faster growth rate than the economy, as a result of which the share of health expenditures in GDP increased from 6.4% to 7.5%. In most low- and middle-income countries in Europe in the pre-COVID-19 period, out-of-pocket payments grew faster than public health spending. According to the ‘2019 Health Expenditures’ statistics published by Turkish Statistical Institute, the total health expenditures amounted to 201 billion 31 million TL. While the per capita health expenditure was TL 2,030 in 2018, this figure increased by 19.9% to TL 2,434 in 2019. In 2020, it is on the agenda that the amounts spent on health expenditures will increase even more during the pandemic process, which has left a mark on both health and social life in 2021 and whose impact continues in 2021.

'Difference Fees Are Under Guarantee'

Nihat Kırmızı, CEO of Doğa Digorta, drew attention to the fact that health should be a top priority not only during crisis periods such as the pandemic, but also during every period and said: “The pandemic period we are in has taught us over the last 1.5 years that, first of all, the health of ourselves and our loved ones is at the beginning of what we need to ensure. Although health expenditures increase gradually, creating an additional burden on financial expenditures, specially developed insurance products such as budget-friendly supplementary health insurances provide assurance to the insured by securing the difference fees to be paid by the insured within the insurance period, within the scope of the policy's special and general conditions, from private health institutions contracted with SGK.

Covid-19 treatment difference fees are also covered

Nihat Kırmızı said: “With the wide coverage provided by complementary health insurance, including treatment costs caused by COVID-19, increasing health expenditures are no longer a burden” and highlighted that as Doğa Sigorta, they have adopted the principle of providing assurance to the insured with their customer-oriented approach. Kırmızı underlined that in this context, the treatment difference fees arising from COVID-19 are covered within the scope of policy coverage at contracted private hospitals where Doğa Sigorta Right Step Complementary Health Insurance product is valid and said: “The Turkish insurance sector gave a successful exam in the process that followed the announcement of the pandemic. As Doğa Sigorta, we have included the treatment difference fees caused by COVID-19 in the policy coverage of contracted private hospitals where the Doğa Sigorta Complementary Health Insurance product is valid by not leaving our insured and insured candidates alone in the difficult process. We offer a total of 3 plans with our two separate inpatient treatment products, including inpatient treatment only and outpatient use limits 6 and 10 times a year, with our Complementary Health Insurance product that caters to all budgets with affordable prices. As Doğa Sigorta, we also offer private hospital and doctor selection facility, renewal guarantee, comprehensive dental package, check up package, mammography and PSA services for free.”

56% increase in Complementary Health Insurance

Kırmsızı drew attention to increasing momentum in complementary health insurance and said: “Looking at the sector as a whole, we see that in the data for the end of August 2021, premium production in the TSS private sector increased by 55.5% compared to the same period last year and reached 1 billion 455 million TL. While the share of Complementary Health Insurance in all branches was 1.6% before the pandemic, this rate reached 2.8% at the end of August 2021 due to the impact of the pandemic on health insurance awareness. When we examined the data about our company, as Doga Sigorta, we recorded an increase above the sector average at the end of August 2021. At the end of August, we increased our Complementary Health Insurance premium production by 56.8% compared to the same period last year and recorded premium production of more than 23 million TL.”