A quarter of private medical insurance (PMI) policyholders have gone private to bypass long NHS waiting lists and the quality of services as per a GlobalData survey. Meanwhile, data from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) shows that the number of private hospital admissions is at a record high, with this mainly comprising insured patients.
According to GlobalData’s 2024 UK Insurance Consumer Survey, concerns about NHS waiting times and/or services are the leading reason why consumers take out personal PMI, as cited by 25.1% of policyholders. Concerns about the NHS significantly outranked health concerns (11.1%), the second-largest trigger.
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The prospect of long waiting times to access hospital treatment is driving more individuals to take out PMI at a time when many households continue to face financial pressures. This has led to a rise in the number of private hospital admissions. The latest data from the PHIN shows there were 232,000 private hospital admissions in Q2 2024, representing a record level for that quarter as well as the second-highest level ever for a period. Most of the admissions (70.7%) were from insured patients.
The NHS is in crisis following years of austerity measures, which was exacerbated by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic deeply disrupted medical provision, leading to a backlog of care that is far from being resolved. According to NHS statistics, there were over 7.5 million cases in England waiting to receive public-funded medical treatment as of October 2024. For reference, the waiting list stood at 4.57 million in February 2020, before the effects of the pandemic.
Besides long waiting times, an overstretched public-funded healthcare system is bound to have a detrimental effect on the quality of healthcare services, which in turn fuels further demand for PMI. Given the tough economic climate, it will naturally be reassuring for insurers to see an increased appetite for PMI. However, inflation is also driving up the cost of private healthcare, and insurers must be careful to price policies correctly as they pass on the costs to consumers—or risk pricing them out.
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