The US capital will cover the civil liability of half the SNS

November 17 , 2022 // Specialty : Professional Liability: lawyers, doctors and other professionals

Billionaire Warren Buffett's company takes over the civil liability policies of half of Spain. The entry of US capital into Spain revolutionizes the future of civil liability insurance in the National Health System (SNS). After the pandemic, most of the autonomous communities were seeing how it was increasingly difficult to affiliate their civil liability contract with an insurer due to the high costs that they had to assume, so in most cases the regions had to respond with their own patrimony before any problem derived from health care. The firm Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI), of American origin, has decided to change the course of this situation and has entered with force in more than half of the Spanish health systems.

The last to sign the company of billionaire Warren Buffett has been Galicia and, soon, the largest health system in our country could follow these same steps: the Andalusian Health System (SAS). As Redaction Médica has been able to learn, the civil liability insurance of Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, which provides insurance coverage to the entire administration of the Xunta de Galicia and which also covers the scope of Sergas, is valid for one year and was contracted in October 2022.

Therefore, it will take effect until October 2023 and can be extended annually until October 2026. Regarding the cost, the current policy contracted by the Xunta has an annual premium of 8.9 million euros. To make a comparison, when the previous policy was tendered (in 2018) an annual cost of 7.9 million euros was calculated in the tender for it.

This increase is due to several factors, such as the reduction of the market (there are fewer and fewer companies that provide coverage for this risk); the impact of the Covid-19 that caused an increase in the cost of insurance policies; the increase in the tax on insurance premiums; and the improvement of policy conditions thanks to the reduction of the excess, the increase in the annual compensation limits or the insurance of new damages.