Iran has seen a significant surge in purchase of health insurance covers from private health insurers. The country saw more than 2.825m new health policies being bought during the nine months from April to December 2024. The cost of healthcare services, however, has also risen during the year 2024.
Data released by the Central Insurance of Iran (Bimeh Markazi) showed that the number of health policies issued in the nine months up to December 2024 has increased by 74.5% from the same period in the previous year.
The Iranian insurance regulator said that insurers in the country had earned IRR1,274tn ($1.57bn) in premiums for health policies during April-December 2024, an increase of 84.2% from the same period in the previous year.
Health insurance premiums contributed around 39.2% of the total premium generated by the country’s private insurance sector in the nine months to late December 2024. Bimeh Markazi said that health policies contributed only 7.4% of all policies issued in the sector over the same period during the previous year.
Claim payouts in the health sector rose by 62.5% on a year-on-year basis during April-December 2024 to reach IRR714tn, accounting for 42.6% of all payouts in the industry.
The growth in the Iranian health insurance sector has come amid the rising costs of healthcare services, including the price of medicines in the country in recent months.
Bimeh Markazi said the total number of policies issued by Iranian insurers in the nine months to late December reached over 59.7m registering an increase of 7% from the same period in 2023.
The total value of premiums generated in the industry reached IRR3,248tn (over $4bn) in April-December 2024, up 59.3% from the same period in the previous year.