The Greek government is facing mounting criticism over delays in implementing a key consumer protection mechanism designed to regulate annual increases in long-term private health insurance premiums, leaving insurers free to continue raising prices without the benchmark envisioned by lawmakers.
Eighteen months after Parliament approved legislation establishing an Annual Adjustment Index to be compiled by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), and six months after the mechanism was supposed to come into force, the index has yet to be produced. The delay has effectively allowed insurance companies to continue imposing premium increases without the objective reference point that was intended to curb excessive hikes and improve transparency for policyholders.
According to information obtained by this column, the failure does not stem from technical difficulties within ELSTAT but from the Ministry of Development's delayed transmission of the data required to calculate the index. Sources familiar with the process say the statistical authority warned the ministry as early as the summer of 2025 that the necessary information had not been provided and that timely completion of the index would therefore be impossible. Those warnings, they claim, went unanswered.
ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ
The required data reportedly reached ELSTAT only toward the end of 2025 and was still incomplete, leaving the index unfinished well into 2026. In the meantime, insurers have continued to set premium adjustments independently, with increases reaching as much as 12% in some cases. Owners of older lifetime health insurance policies have reported even steeper increases.
The delay undermines the purpose of Law 5170/2025, which explicitly states that annual adjustments to premiums for long-term health insurance contracts should be linked to ELSTAT's Annual Adjustment Index beginning on January 1, 2026. A joint ministerial decision issued in September 2025 had already defined the statistical indicators, variables and data sources needed for the index, suggesting that the legal and regulatory framework was in place. What remains absent is its implementation.
For hundreds of thousands of Greek policyholders, the consequences are tangible. Without the index, there is no officially sanctioned benchmark against which premium increases can be measured or challenged, leaving consumers exposed to unilateral pricing decisions by insurers at a time of rising healthcare costs.
Critics argue that the Ministry of Development's failure to provide the necessary information constitutes more than administrative inefficiency, carrying direct financial consequences for households that continue to absorb repeated premium increases without the protections promised by law.
If the government—and in particular Development Minister Takis Theodorikakos—maintains that it bears no responsibility for the delay, there is a straightforward way to settle the matter. Publishing the correspondence between the ministry and ELSTAT would reveal when requests for information were made, what data was sought, and when it was ultimately delivered. Making that documentation available to Parliament would also clarify who is accountable for the prolonged absence of the adjustment mechanism and the continued burden placed on consumers by rising insurance premiums.
