Help, my collective medical expenses policy is being indexed
2 min read
The collective medical expenses policies are indexed once a year. In recent years these have been fairly substantial indexations, which often do not pass unnoticed. After all, in most companies employees can optionally affiliate their family members to the collective medical expenses policy, but at their own expense. The higher premium will therefore certainly be noticed by an attentive employee...
The indexation that the insurer imposes on you and your staff is not arbitrary, however. It is not chosen individually per company, but was contractually included in your policy, and is broadly the same for all clients and insurers. You can find these conditions in the general terms and conditions associated with the contract that your company concluded with the insurer.
Companies that have taken out a collective hospitalisation insurance with Axa, for example, could find that the applicable index is that of “the single room cover” of the age class “global”, and for the annual due date, year on year. The medical index that is published once a year amounts this year for hospitalisation costs to 7,51%.
The question now is: “Can I check that?”. You can indeed. For that it is enough to surf to https://statbel.fgov.be/nl/themas/consumptieprijsindex/medische-index#figures. At the bottom you can find an excel containing all indices from 2015 to the present.
- In it you take the “single room cover, global” - For 2023 this amounted to 137,91. - For 2022 this was 128,28. - And so: (137,91 / 128,28) - 1 = 7,51%.
So an increase of 7,51% on an annual basis is justified in the case of this medical expenses policy.
For your information: in the same way the medical index for outpatient costs this year amounts to 8,48% and for dental care 2,68%.
For contracts where the consumer price index does apply (this often concerns older collective contracts), the index this year, based on the figures for June, equals 4,15%. You can check this in a similar way. You go to: https://statbel.fgov.be/nl/themas/consumptieprijsindex/index-search. At the bottom of this page you will again find an excel containing all indices from 1920 to the present. You take the General Index tab, and then:
- For June 2023 this amounted to 127,11 - For June 2022 this was 122,04 - And so: (127,11 / 122,04) - 1 = 4,15%.
In most cases the premium increase is also applied from the next main due date.
Questions about your own situation?
This article is general information. Your adviser will look at what it means for you.