Claims up but profits stable at Irish Life Health last year

Irish Life’s health insurance subsidiary incurred a total of €126.3 million in claims last year, a 6.6 per cent increase from 2021 as private health services ramped up again in the aftermath of the pandemic. Pretax profits were stable year on year at €35.2 million compared with €35.3 million in 2021.

Customer numbers at Irish Life Health, which has announced two price increases for customers since November citing a substantial increase in the cost and size of claims, increased by 4.4 per cent last year to more than half a million, according to recently filed accounts.

The insurer, part of the Great-West Lifeco-owned Irish Life group, saw its gross written premium increase by 3 per cent to €600.5 million as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic receded.

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In a report attached to the accounts, the directors of the company said the pandemic continued to affect the business in 2022 albeit to a lesser extent that previous years. They said: “The most significant impact arose in 2020 when private hospitals operated as part of the public healthcare system for a three-month period.”

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Consequently, a significant proportion of the insurer’s 2020 premiums were returned to policyholders to reflect an expected reduction in claims costs. However, over 2021 and 2022, the impacts were “less significant” with access to private healthcare maintained health insurance policyholders “at all times”.

The directors said the price of premiums had remained stable in 2021 before reducing in 2022 despite an inflation pushing up the price of hospital procedures and the 6.6 per cent increase in claims as private healthcare services resumed normal operation.

Last November, the insurer announced varying price hikes from January across its various private health insurance policies, citing “very substantial inflation” in hospital procedure prices. Irish Life Health in June announced a second price hike that will see some family policies climb by between €160 and €220 from July 1st.

The company said it was increasing its premiums as a result of “a very significant increase in the volume and size of claims”. It said that post-pandemic, “there has been a considerable ramp-up in activity across all public and private health services, with private and high-tech hospitals returning to full service and many much-needed procedures that had been deferred during the pandemic now taking place. The level of claims in 2022 from private and high-tech hospitals is the highest seen since the inception of Irish Life Health in 2016″.

The 2022 accounts noted that there was a “heightened level of uncertainty” at the end of last year surrounding outstanding claims rates due to the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. An additional €15.5 million was set aside last year as a provision for liabilities associated with existing contracts, up from €16.1 million at the end of 2021.