Can private UK health cover re-establish the real terms growth which has eluded it since the global financial crisis of 2007/08?

LaingBuisson’s comprehensive study into the UK’s healthcare insurance market. Seventeenth edition.

The 17th edition of LaingBuisson’s Health Cover UK Market report is essential reading for all professionals working within the health cover sector, as providers or intermediaries, who need definitive information on the state of the market in private medical insurance, non-insured healthcare trusts, health cash plans, dental maintenance & insurance, and wellbeing products including GP primary care. Others with a professional interest in the sector, including hospital executives, specialist care providers, private dentistry groups, risk managers, investors banks, lawyers, management consultants, think tanks and government, should also read this much-respected industry-standard report.

Based on returns from providers representing 95% plus of the health cover market, Health Cover is the only publicly available source of reliable information on sector trends. The statistics are used by the Office of National Statistics to feed into both UK national accounts and OECD international comparisons.

The new edition of the report describes a sector that has successfully navigated the Covid pandemic of 2020/21. But the long-awaited and much hoped-for resumption of real terms growth remains elusive.

Health cover market value reached £ 6,173m in 2020 (2019: £6,073m), but in real value terms it remains below the 2008 peak. Health cover is also below its peak penetration of the population. Looking at the private medical cover component only (PMI plus non-insured medical expenses schemes) the share of the population which benefits has fallen from 12.4% at its peak before the global financial crisis to 10.6% in 2020.

Most of the sectors’ management bandwidth has been absorbed by Covid over the last two years. The question now is whether innovative capacity can be unleashed to re-establish past growth trends. Prospects look mixed, with two opposing drivers of demand in play. On the positive side, long waiting times and reduced access to NHS services, which will take several years to catch up with the Covid backlog, should strongly stimulate private health cover demand. But on the other hand the cost of living crisis, the Ukraine war and the uncertain economic outlook, will undoubtedly have a dampening effect.

The market remains highly concentrated in the hands of its four largest providers – Bupa, AXA PP, Aviva and Vitality – which account for approaching 90% of the private health cover market including PMI and non-insured healthcare trust schemes.

It is also a market which is highly intermediated, with 69% of new PMI sales being completed through an intermediary in 2020 – rising to 83% in the company paid PMI segment only.

Comments from the report author

“Looking further forward, to calendar year 2022 and beyond, there are two opposing drivers in play. On the one hand, long waiting times and reduced access to NHS services, which will take several years to catch up with the Covid backlog, should strongly stimulate private health cover demand. But on the other hand the cost of living crisis, the Ukraine war and the uncertain economic outlook, will undoubtedly have a dampening effect. In the light of the uncertainties, no quantitative projections are offered by the report this year.”

William Laing, report author

Published 27 June 2022 (209pp).

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Health Cover UK Market Report 17ed

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Can private UK health cover re-establish the real terms growth which has eluded it since the global financial crisis of 2007/08?

Comments from the report author

Health Cover UK Market Report 17ed

Want to know more? Our sales team can help.

Can private UK health cover re-establish the real terms growth which has eluded it since the global financial crisis of 2007/08?

Comments from the report author

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