Private medical insurance (PMI) is slowly growing in popularity across the UK, which is a stark change from the norm. The NHS has long been a source of great pride for everyone in the country, offering free medical care for all. While the majority of people still use the NHS and will happily depend on their services for most things, others are turning to health insurance for the first time.
But why is PMI more popular than ever, especially in the current economic climate where everything is extremely expensive, and people are eager to save money? It seems as though fewer people should be taking out health insurance, and yet the opposite is true. In the end, it comes down to several social, political and health-related factors.
Health Insurance As A Worthwhile Monthly Cost
If you quizzed most people about the cost of health insurance, many would expect to pay thousands of pounds a year. In reality, when you compare health insurance providers across the board, the average healthy individual in their 30s (who doesn’t smoke) could pay as little as £35 a month. While still a lot of money to some people, we’re now in a world where it’s £18.99 a month for a family of four to get Netflix without ads. If you’ve got multiple streaming subscriptions, you’re already paying more than you would for health insurance every month.
When placed within that context, families and individuals have started seeing health insurance as a more worthwhile monthly cost. They realise that, if they cancel a few subscriptions that they barely use, they can now afford private healthcare. If you look at it from that perspective, then spending between £35-50 a month ensuring that you get good medical care seems like a far better use of money than the same amount on three or four streaming services that you only really use once or twice a month anyway.
The Additional Benefits That Come With PMI
What many people in the UK don’t know is that health insurance providers often go beyond simply covering the cost of medical treatment. While you have to make claims for your insurance provider to cover those costs, you get several benefits for free, such as:
- Discounts on gym memberships
- 24/7 access to online consultations
- Discounts on fitness products
- Free mental health counselling
When factored into the cost of healthcare insurance, many people realise that this is a fantastic deal. The additional benefits turn PMI into something worthwhile every single day – not just if you need to access private medical services. You’ll see some healthcare insurance providers that offer 50% off gym memberships across the country, which could save you £10-20 a month on going to the gym – and that factors into the overall affordability of health insurance.
Growing NHS Waiting Times
The tragedy of the NHS can best be described when you look at the latest news story, “celebrating” waiting times reaching their largest year-on-year reduction in 16 years. It sounds like a positive thing – and it’s definitely an improvement – but then you read the statistics, and it says that 65.3% of patients were waiting 18+ weeks for an appointment. That’s nearly two-thirds of people waiting over four months to be seen by a medical professional.
Waiting times for specialist services are usually even longer than that – some people report waiting over 30 weeks to see an NHS dermatologist. Ultimately, this is the main reason a lot of UK residents are now taking out private medical insurance. They can no longer deal with excessive waiting times or being thrust onto a waiting list for over a year. Private medical insurance gives people access to the care they need when they need it.
If you’re worried about a new mole on your skin, you can see skincare experts within days through your health insurance provider. It’s such a shame because the NHS is a fantastic concept that really makes people proud to be British, but it’s been let down by decades of mismanagement by one government after another. Everyone hopes that things will change, but while the system “celebrates” just 65.3% of people waiting 18+ weeks for medical appointments, more and more will likely go private.
Prioritising Healthy Lifestyles
It’s fair to say that the country – and maybe even the world – saw a change in lifestyle priorities since 2020. The pandemic opened our eyes to how much better life is for everyone if we’re all trying to be healthy. We’ve mentioned the NHS, and part of the reason for long waiting times is that so many people need public healthcare, but a massive majority of enquiries are for preventable health problems – like heart disease, obesity, and so on.
Being inside for months forced a lot of us to look inside and make a change, which has led to a boom in gym memberships and healthy eating. People see the value of living a healthy lifestyle, which is where private health insurance comes in. As noted before, many providers give you ways to be healthier – whether it’s a discount on gym memberships and fitness bands, or simply access to private health counsellors.
A lot of people in the country see the act of getting health insurance as another way to prioritise their health & wellbeing. They get the protection that these services bring, mixed with the benefits.
There was a time when hardly anyone had private medical insurance in the UK. It was something that was reserved for the extra-wealthy – or given out by big companies as an employee benefit. No one saw the necessity for it due to the thriving public healthcare system and how expensive it seemed. Now, we live in a world where, actually, it’s not much more expensive to get PMI than it is to pay for a couple of subscription services. We no longer have a public healthcare system that can handle the country’s needs, and health insurance providers have become increasingly generous. It’s not surprising to see that this has culminated in more and more individuals taking out PMI policies, and this trend looks set to continue for the foreseeable.
