The population covered by Private Insurance Companies (from here on ESL) in 2002 came to 310,796 people, 3.9% more than the previous year. This figure means that 15.1% of the population of the A.C. of the Basque Country held one of the 158,158 health care insurance policies, according to EUSTAT data.

In terms of provinces, Bizkaia continued to be the most attracted to health care insurance, with the highest proportion of the population insured per inhabitant, 19.9%, followed by Alava (13.4%) and Gipuzkoa (7.9%); however, in relative terms, Alava was where the number of policy holders grew the most (5%) with respect to 2001, compared to Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, whose increase was 4% and 3% respectively.

This increase in the number of policy holders in the A.C. of the Basque Country (3.9%), higher than that registered in the State (2.9%), shows a change in the trend of the previous eight years (1994-2001), which had been characterised by a steady decrease in the number of policy holders.

Regarding the type of policy, the most common was the individual or family type, covering 54.9% of holders, followed by policies aimed at companies or other specific groups (25.8%) and public mutual policies (19.3%). The collective policy, in keeping with the upward trend of the preceding three years (1999-2001), obtained the highest growth (6.1%) in relation to 2001, while individual or family ones and public mutual ones grew by 3.3% and 4.4% respectively.

The total value of premiums collected by the insurance health care sector in 2002 was over 137 million euros, 5.8% more than the previous year, representing 0.3% of the GDP of the A.C. of the Basque Country.

The average premium per policy holder for the A.C. of the Basque Country as a whole was 441 euros, similar to that registered in the State (443 euros), meaning a modest increase of 1.8% with respect to 2001. For the individual or family type, this increase was 4.2%, while other collective types decreased 1.6% and the public mutual ones were virtually unchanged.

There were a total of 8,019 professionals working in the ESL in the health sector of private insurance, with a medical team for primary care of 1,285 general practitioners, 331 paediatricians and 5,494 consultants to provide specialist care. In this area, odontology, gynecology and orthopedics were the specialisations offering the highest number of professionals.

This increase in the number of policy holders was reflected in an increase in medical and hospital care activity. A total of 1,164,635 outpatient visits were dealt with among the ESL policy holders (3.3% more in comparison to 2001), making an average of 3.7 visits per holders. The busiest specialities were orthopedics, with an average of 48 visits per 100 policy holders, followed by paediatrics and gynecology (with an average of 41 visits per 100 holders in both cases).

Patients coming from medical insurers accounted for a total of 40,186 hospital admissions, 7.8% more with respect to 2001, representing 14.7% of the total of hospital admissions in the A.C. of the Basque Country in 2002. In addition, 72.3% of those people in hospital covered by ESL underwent surgery, totalling 29,066 operations (4.2% more than the previous year).