Plenty of scope for growth of private healthcare insurance

Greeks spent 5.9 billion euros out of pocket for medical services in 2022, when the public spending was €10.9 billion.

This puts Greece at the bottom of the EU rankings, with state healthcare expenditure at 61.8% of total health spending, but at the top of the rankings in private health expenditure at 33.4%.

Expenditure through private insurance was limited to €712.4 million.

That shows the great scope for growth that the private health insurance market has in Greece, but the cost of insurance premiums works as a deterrent. This year, the annual hikes in the so-called old hospital plans came to 15%, while those in new ones reached 7-9%.