Almost one if five (18 per cent) employees now have private medical insurance, and this number is expected to rise sharply as business look to support the health of their staff.
Analysis by consultants Broadstone, of data from the FCA’s Financial Lives Survey shows that a total of 6.9m people in the UK now have PMI — and more than three quarters of these policies (76 per cent) are provided through as a workplace benefit. Around a fifth of these workers are self-funding according to this data.
The total number of people covered by PMI has risen by 1m over the past five years that the FCA started collating this dataset.
The analysis by Broadstone shows that it is workers aged from 35 to 54 who are most likely to be covered by a PMI policy – with around 22 per cent of this age group with medical cover.
In contrast around 20 per cent of 25-34 year olds have cover, but this number drops to 15 per cent of those aged 55-63 and just 9 per cent of those aged 65-74. Just 7 per cent of people over this age have PMI cover.
These higher number among the middle aged are likely to reflect the fact a higher proportion of these age groups are in full-time work.
These figures are published as the Private Health Information Network (PHIN) published data showing that private health health admissions surged in 2022 and recorded the largest ever quarterly total of admissions in Q1 2023 (227,000), largely driven by increases in insured treatments.
Broadstone head of health & protection Brett Hill says: “The FCA’s research shows the importance of PMI as an employee benefit with coverage concentrated among working adults.
“Given the crisis in the NHS and the surging levels of economic inactivity due to chronic illness, we expect growth in coverage of PMI to continue, and most likely accelerate, in its current upwards trajectory.
“The conversations we are having on a daily basis with clients demonstrate how healthcare is now a board-level discussion, with CEOs recognising how crucial it is that they act to keep their staff healthy if the public health service can no longer guarantee to do so.”
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