The Insurance Control Commission discussed the medical insurance in Lebanon with a number of stakeholders, whereby the Acting Head of the Commission, Mrs. Nadine El Habbal, mentioned the following indicators:

• The gross written premium for the entire insurance sector neared 1.6bn USD in 2017.
• The share of medical insurance reached 30% of that business, and had hovered in a stable fashion between 29% and 30% over the past few years.
• The average prices of medical insurance decreased between 2016 and 2017. For instance, the average premium per member for individual medical products (including insurance of foreign workers) went down from 495 to 411 USD , while it reduced from 651 to 546 USD for group insurance products.

She stated that the insurance sector contributes in funding around 12% of the entire healthcare expenditures in the country, whereby the ICC believes that the sector can achieve much larger ambitions in view of its capabilities, the level of experience, and the expertise available, and in the context of a compulsory medical insurance scheme that would cover the entire Lebanese population.

Mrs El Habbal called on the public, all stakeholders and media to consider the Annual Report published by the ICC which exhibits all relevant statistics in a transparent manner, and to place reliance on it for any reviews or analyses of the industry. This report can be found on www.insurancecommission.gov.lb/icc-publications.