The dispute is burning between the Union of Hospital Owners in Lebanon and the Association of Insurance Companies.
The Union of Hospital Owners in Lebanon, chaired by Sleiman Haroun, has decided that from February 2, 2025, hospitals will increase by 15% the rates contracted with insurance companies “to be able to continue providing services quality to insured patients”.
The union estimates that “the real cost of services no longer keeps pace with the increase in product prices, particularly consumer goods included in the cost of hospital services (non-billable items), particularly after the lifting of the subsidy on some of them”.
Added to this, according to him, are “other factors which have contributed to the increase in the cost of services”.
Questioned by Ici Beirut, the president of the Association of Insurance Companies, Assaad Mirza, said he “categorically refuses” this increase, specifying that Mr. Haroun informed him of this by mail on December 24.
Mr Mirza said he called university hospitals which confirmed that the increase in fees, commonly known as “cost of living”, ranges between 3% and 5%. In a return letter, he reminded Mr. Haroun that the insured and the Lebanese in general “already suffer enough from the high cost of living” and that it is “impossible to inflict another increase on them”.
In addition, the majority of insurance policies have already been issued and do not include this significant increase.
And Mr. Mirza added that the medical insurance sector cannot bear this financial overload, especially since it has suffered a loss of 130%.
