Importance of Medical Insurance

You would think that concerns over the vulnerable state of the economy would mean that less people would take out health insurance. The opposite is true. According to The Association of British Insurers (ABI) 7,335,000 people took out private medical insurance in 2008. This represented a 2.7% annual increase.

The ABI’s Director of General Insurance and Health, Nick Starling, said ‘The continued rise in the number of people covered by PMI is good news. PMI gives people the peace of mind that they are able to get access to the treatment they need, at the time they need it, where they need it.’

The NHS has been improving continuously since its inception and recently they have met their target of maximum 18 weeks waiting time for operations. This is great news for the UK although, as reported in Health Insurance UK, generally this is not considered to be good enough.

Despite people's overall increase in satisfaction with the NHS there are still serious concerns about high levels of 'super-bugs' in UK hospitals and this is the main reason that people report they would choose to be treated privately if they could.

It is entirely possible that uptake of private health insurance will keep increasing. From a long term point of view there are concerns about the NHS. With increased public borrowing how will the country pay back its debts? Either there will be an increase in taxation or a cut-back on public spending or a combination of the two. If public spending is cut back it is possible that the improvements in the NHS will slow down.

Looking further ahead, the ageing population is increasing and this will put further strain on the NHS pot. By 2025, more than a third of the UK's population will be over 55.

A recent Bupa report supports the current ABI figures. Bupa's UK health division director Fiona Harris said,

'Despite today's economic climate, customers put private medical insurance at the top of the list of things most difficult to cut back on to save money – more so than holidays (20 per cent), eating out (10 per cent), pensions and other long-term savings (19 per cent).

'Two-thirds (66 per cent) of customers say that having medical insurance is very important, or vital to them.'

These figures show the importance that people place on their health and wellbeing.