Insurance industry: Much more than just a risk carrier

In order to operate successfully in the market, private health insurers must know in advance what sort of effect their decisions will have in different healthcare systems on premium calculation, product development, risk assessment, claims management and service support management.

A high level of know-how is required to ensure that all operative levels, including financial aspects, are given due consideration and interlinked. This applies equally to comprehensive health cover, supplementary insurances and assistance or managed-care services.

With its international experience spanning more than two decades, Munich Re is the only reinsurer with a specialist health unit. It can provide its clients with expert advice on how to combine financial cover of risks with supplementary services in order to ensure that cedants are even better positioned in their markets.

International orientation and expertise

The Munich Re Group's MedNet companies are a prime example of this, as they form a bridge between the primary insurers, the policyholders and medical providers.

Thanks to its international orientation, Munich Re can also support its clients with processes, structures and services that have already proved successful in other countries. Experience has shown that viable solutions should ideally be developed in cooperation between public institutions and the insurance industry.

In fact, restricting such development solely to state-run health insurance cover is both unnecessary and pointless. As the Abu Dhabi example shows, mandatory insurance cover and private-sector organisation are by no means mutually exclusive.

In search of the "philosopher's stone"

In many countries, the state and its citizens must abandon the idea of finding some sort of "philosopher's stone" which can cure the healthcare system of all its ills resulting from demographic trends.

It is also an illusion to believe that age-old concepts can survive for ever without change. Rather, healthcare systems can only be funded properly and structured effectively if financing instruments and service models are adapted to the respective parameters.

Private health insurance with its funded and flexible concepts is an indispensable element. Its adaptable business models, which go beyond mere risk carrying, make a vital contribution to more efficient healthcare markets.