Helsana reports satisfactory annual results

2020 will go down in history as one of the most unusual years ever. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a challenge to Switzerland unlike any other crisis in recent decades. In a year of ongoing uncertainty and a healthcare system in a state of emergency, the Helsana Group’s main priorities were to remain constantly available to its policyholders and to become involved in charitable initiatives related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its core business, the Helsana Group managed to continue the good progress made by the company in recent years. In view of the generally unpredictable situation, the result of CHF 155 million (2019: CHF 436 million) is satisfactory. Driven by the increase in customers in the preceding year, the premium volume exceeded the CHF 7 billion mark for the first time (2020: CHF 7.1 billion; 2019: CHF 6.7 billion).

Roman Sonderegger, CEO of the Helsana Group, is also pleased with the performance during the course of 2020: “We are proud and grateful to have made it through this extremely challenging year unscathed. Despite the widespread uncertainty, we remained available to our policyholders at all times – and we recorded an extremely moderate premium increase for 2021. We also managed to consolidate our excellent position in the supplementary insurance market.”

In 2020, the underwriting result for the Helsana Group amounted to CHF 44 million (2019: CHF 97 million). The combined ratio rose to 99.4 per cent compared with the previous year (2019: 98.6 per cent).

The combined ratio in the area of basic insurance (Federal Health Insurance Act, KVG) increased from 98.1 per cent (2019) to 99.8 per cent in comparison to the previous year. The supplementary insurance business (Federal Insurance Contract Act, VVG) also remained profitable overall in 2020; the combined ratio was reduced to 98.4 per cent through continuous improvements in the business unit and active benefits cost management (2019: 99.8 per cent). The combined ratio for 2020 also declined in the accident insurance business (Federal Accident Insurance Act, UVG) compared with the previous year by 1.8 percentage points to 96.4 per cent (2019: 98.2 per cent).

The international capital markets were badly shaken by the pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, but they recovered well over the course of a very volatile year. As at the end of 2020, the performance was positive at +2.19 per cent, but it fell short of the excellent performance of the year before (2019: +9.04 per cent). Equity was up slightly, with a total of CHF 2.906 billion at the end of the year (2019: CHF 2.755 billion). The Helsana Group thus strengthened its solid financial foundation and enhanced its position as a reliable anchor for policyholders.

Fig: The Helsana Group reported satisfactory results for 2020. In the area of compulsory health insurance (KVG), more than 79,000 new customers will be reported for 2021. This means that the number of policyholders of the Helsana Group has risen by about 303,000 over the past four years.

*   Total of insurance and operating expenses as a percentage of premiums earned
**  Operating expenses as a percentage of premiums earned