Virtually one in eight Britons now has non-public medical insurance coverage, say healthcare analysts | Non-public healthcare

Virtually one in eight Britons now has medical insurance coverage – the best proportion since 2008 – with NHS care delays driving an increase in individuals utilizing non-public healthcare.

The variety of individuals coated by a personal medical insurance coverage coverage hit a document excessive of 4.68 million on the finish of 2023, in accordance with non-public healthcare analysts LaingBuisson.

Eight million individuals within the UK can now entry non-public healthcare utilizing insurance coverage, as soon as the spouses, companions and kids of policyholders are included. That represents 11.8% of the UK’s 68.3 million inhabitants, the best proportion since 12.3% in 2008 – earlier than the monetary crash prompted a fall in companies paying for personal medical cowl for his or her workers and people choosing it.

4 out of 5 of the 4.9 million policyholders – 3.8 million individuals – have been coated by a coverage their employer had taken out, whereas the remaining had taken out insurance policies as people.

The current surge in using non-public healthcare implies that the whole worth of all medical and dental cowl reached a document £7.59bn by the top of 2023, up from £6.76bn the 12 months earlier than.

Tim Learn, LaingBuisson’s head of analysis and creator of the report on the UK medical insurance market, mentioned: “The rise in individuals coated by medical insurance is being pushed by each an increase within the variety of firms taking out insurance coverage on behalf of their staff, however there has additionally been an increase within the variety of people taking out their very own insurance policies.

“Given we’ve seen individuals’s satisfaction with the NHS plummeting lately, and likewise continued challenges in accessing each diagnostic and remedy providers on the NHS, this rise isn’t a shock.

“Prior to now individuals might have taken out medical insurance as a result of it provided a greater high quality of service than the NHS. However now they worth well timed entry extra extremely and more and more are prepared to pay for it.”

Non-public medical cowl accounted for £6.15bn of the £7.59bn whole market worth – up 12.2% on a 12 months earlier. The remainder of that was made up of individuals spending £1.05bn on dental insurance coverage – the primary time that had crossed the £1bn threshold – and £435m on well being money plans, which generally value £150 to £200 a 12 months and supply entry to personal GPs and personal diagnostic providers, however not remedy.

4 large insurance coverage companies – Aviva, AXA Well being, Bupa and Vitality Well being – have 95% of the non-public medical insurance coverage market between them, LaingBuisson mentioned.