Portugal's Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Authority (ASF) published the report of Public Consultation No. 1/2025 and finalised recommendations aimed at reducing consumer confusion between health insurance (sickness business) and “health plans” that provide discounted access to healthcare without transferring insurance risk. The recommendations apply only to insurance undertakings, reflecting ASF’s view that “health plans” fall outside its supervisory remit and are not subject to the insurance activity or insurance contract regimes. The recommended practices include avoiding the term “plan” to label options or packages within health insurance, refraining from marketing health plan-type products without risk coverage, revising pre-contractual information and policy wording to make clear the product is health insurance, publishing website information explaining the distinction (including that insurance-sector dispute resolution mechanisms are exclusive to health insurance), and ensuring distribution channels comply. The consultation ran from 2 to 23 January 2025 and attracted six responses, five of which are published in an annex. The final recommendations operate on a comply-or-explain basis, requiring insurers to notify ASF within one month of issuance whether they comply or intend to comply and, if not, to provide reasons, with consenting compliant insurers to be listed on ASF’s website.

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