Call to stop insurance fall
By Leslie Berry
Latest figures showing a further drop in the number of patients with private health cover serve as a ‘wake-up call for us all’ in the sector, a Bupa boss has warned.
UK general manager Alex Perry claimed more people would not take up medical insurance unless it became more affordable – but November’s insurance premium tax rise would be a blow to affordability.
He said: ‘The need for fundamental reform is more pressing than ever – the whole sector must work together to improve affordability, demonstrate the quality we deliver and improve the customer experience.
‘If we increase the number of people accessing private healthcare, we can start to take some pressure off an overloaded NHS.’
Market analyst LaingBuisson puts the number of UK private medical cover policies (insured and self-insured) at 3.94m at the start of 2015, down from 3.97m in 2014.
It said policy numbers were now 9% below a 4.32m peak seven years ago, with 10.5% of the population covered compared to 12.3% in 2009.
There were similar falls of around 14,000 for both company-paid policies and individual-paid policies last year.
Report author and economist Philip Blackburn said the insurance premium tax rise was needed ‘like a hole in the head’ and medical cover was at a crossroads.
‘A lack of growth in volume demand when the UK economic cycle is at a strong point, suggests there are barriers to a wider market which need to be addressed.
‘While tackling high costs of cover needs to be an ongoing priority for everyone within the private healthcare industry, demonstrating the financial benefit of private healthcare to employers would appear imperative for long-term market prosperity.
‘To this end, investment in the value of private healthcare is required from insurers, hospitals and doctors alike.’
He said long-term growth of corporate medical cover depended on the tangible financial and non-financial pay-offs to employers as a core part of health and wellbeing spend.
Insurers were making progress to quantify these.
Health Cover UK Market Report 12th edition. Cost: £1,335 for individual package (£3,235 office package) including printed copy, PDF and Microsoft Excel data files.