Credit card-based health assistance likely to blossom
By Aleksander Nowacki
When PKO SA bank joined forces with Elba to provide health assistance products to all 4 million holders of its Gold Eurocard, the assistance market in this country underwent a revolution, say industry insiders.
"I was very happy when I heard of the deal," said Attilio Battaglia, president of Europ Assistance Polska (EAP), a competitor of Elba. "It means that sooner rather than later the other banks will have to react."
Battaglia is so certain that the other banks will follow suit that he claims the process is already underway.
"I can say with confidence that within six months I'll be able to say that we're offering a range of new products in cooperation with some of the major retail banks," he said.
Having spent most of his career at the company's Paris headquarters, he may feel that the scope for development in this country is great, as 200 million assistance policies have been sold in France and the market is worth some E800 million (zł. 3.5 billion), as opposed to an estimated E25 million (zł. 110 million) in Poland.
But he is the first to admit that the business here encounters psychological and cultural barriers as well as other obstacles to reaching its potential.
"Poles do not understand the assistance market," Battaglia said. "We often meet with the reaction that people don't believe that the service we have to offer can be provided."
What is more, banks do not confirm Battaglia's assertions that the country is in for a wave of new products. There is no independent confirmation that negotiations are underway to introduce products integrated with a credit card or an account.
Another problem that is stalling the growth of EAP is that it can only operate as a service company at the moment.
"We cannot take on any of the risk directly," Battaglia said. "There are two ways of approaching the problem." One possible scenario, he said, would be to apply for an insurance license. Another would be simply to wait a year for the market to be fully liberalized following European Union accession.
Last year EAP recorded a net profit of zł. 600,000 (E135,000) on sales revenue of E1.4 million (zł. 6.2 million). Together with reinsurance and services rendered, it generated turnover of around E2.7 million (zł. 12 million).
The company currently accounts for some 12 percent of the country's assistance market. It may, however, throw a spanner into the works of market leader AXA, another Paris-based international assistance company active in this country. AXA plans to capture the whole of the country's health assistance market, as it has done in the United Kingdom through its cooperation with the National Health Service. Although AXA remains tight-lipped about the strategy that would allow it to reproduce the feat in a country with a completely different health system, the company is widely regarded as likely to remain in the driver's seat for years to come.
