PMI is flying sky high
By Robin Stride
New figures signal a boom in work for thousands of doctors in private practice from patients with private medical insurance (PMI).
Market analysts have revealed demand for private health cover – including insurance, health cash plans and dental cover – has hit its highest levels since the launch of Independent Practitioner Today in 2008.
They report ‘considerably faster’ market growth than historic norms with an annual rise of 6.1% between 2020 and 2022, compared to average annual growth of 1.7% between 2008 and 2019.
LaingBuisson said there was ‘surging demand for private health cover as access to NHS services continues to deteriorate’.
Its Health Cover UK Market Report 19th edition puts the overall value of the health cover market in the UK at £6.7bn at year-end 2022 – up £385m on the previous year.
Private medical cover, including private health insurance, accounts for 80% of the total market value at £5.3bn.
Impact on productivity
Report author Tim Read observed that growth was being led by company-backed schemes, which might suggest an increased awareness of the impact of employee ill-health on a business – and possibly frustration at the impact an inaccessible NHS was having on productivity.
He said: ‘Investing in a product that enables people to see primary or secondary care specialists when they need to, rather than having a take a day off work hoping for an appointment, is no longer necessarily seen as a perk but as something critical to ongoing business success.’
Despite a real terms fall in overall market value, the broader picture for the health cover market was ‘positive’.
Mr Read believes higher subscriber numbers after the pandemic should translate to overall growth in market value as background inflation declines.
‘LaingBuisson’s analysis shows a longer, deeper relationship between the length of the NHS waiting list and demand for health insurance. The pandemic may have driven increased demand, but it is misleading to suggest it is the cause of it.
Cover will continue to grow
‘Demand began to increase in 2018, as the NHS waiting list began to rise out of control. This suggests that without substantial inroads into making NHS-funded care accessible within acceptable time-scales for patients, health cover products will continue to grow in demand.’
Mr Read added: ‘There is a long way to go before coverage reaches levels last seen across the UK population since the 2008 financial crash, but it is the first time there has been sustained growth in the sector for more than 15 years.’
A rising trend of insurance claims in 2022 meant premiums were set to rise, but these are yet to feed through to price increases.
But LaingBuisson warned these were expected to rise ‘above historic increases in the near future’.
Individual insurance also growing
The number of individuals taking out their own health insurance has also been increasing.
Private medical cover pays for around half of private hospital and specialist treatment in the UK. Two-thirds of private medical cover is funded by employers as an employee benefit. Individual PMI policy-holders pay the other third.
Rising demand for other forms of health cover means health cash plans are valued at £461m, dental capitation programmes (£688m) and dental insurance (£180m).
A total of 4.2m people were subscribed to medical cover schemes, but with policies often covering more than one person, 7.3m people had private medical cover, the highest for 14 years.
Market penetration among the rising population was below 2008 levels – 10.8% of the population covered compared to 12.3%.
LaingBuisson said its analysis of the NHS waiting list showed a relationship between medical cover subscriber volumes and the median wait time on the NHS.
An NHS funding injection in the early 2000s brought down waiting times substantially and was followed by a fall in the total number of people with medical cover.
As waiting times remained comparatively low through most of the 2010s, medical cover volumes were steady, before beginning to increase alongside rises in the NHS waiting list from 2018.