Doctors' Digest

Future private healthcare views and opinions amii conference

Last week’s AMII Conference brought together some of the leading UK heath insurers, intermediaries and brokers and provided some valuable insight into the challenges faced by the NHS and the UK’s private healthcare sector. The conference was held against a backdrop of concerns over the stagnation of the sector and media speculation over the future of the UK’s free to access National Health Service. 10 years ago private medical insurance covered 11.9% of the population through corporate and individual schemes. But insured numbers have been in steady decline, resulting in the loss of over one million consumers of private healthcare services. Medical inflation has contributed to significant increases in health insurance premiums while at the same time the recession has hit both company coffers and people’s pockets. In contrast, the low cost health cash plan market is seeing growth, and the number of people who are self funding private healthcare is on the rise. The private hospitals whose business is driven by insured patients are feeling the knock on effect and are turning to the NHS to keep private hospital beds occupied at marginal cost. Just over the horizon, the industry awaits the recommendations of the Competition Commission into private healthcare which may bring further pain to the sector. The need for innovation in healthcare delivery payment models and funding were recurrent themes throughout the event.