Private healthcare insurance costs rising as record numbers pay for treatment

The cost of private healthcare insurance is rising as record numbers of people decide to pay for their treatment, it has been reported.

Brokers have seen health insurance price increases of about 25% in the last year, the i reports.

This is due to an increase in the number of claims being made, and increased medical costs, the paper adds.

Record levels of people are using the private sector for their healthcare, with 238,000 private hospital admissions in the first three months of the year – more than any previous quarter on record, according to figures from the Private Healthcare Information Network (Phin).

And an unprecedented number of these were paid for using insurance, rather than the patient paying directly.

It comes as the overall NHS waiting list stands at 7.6 million.

Dr Christopher Smith-Brown, a clinical adviser at the Phin, said: “Our data shows that record numbers of people are turning to the private sector for their healthcare and that the number using private medical insurance is at an all-time high.

“This may be because of an increase in the number of employers offering insurance as an incentive, insurers marketing their products in different ways and to different potential customers, or due to worries about NHS waiting lists and the length of time it could take to be seen.”

Brett Hill, the head of health and protection at the consultancy Broadstone, told the i that the NHS crisis was prompting more workers to take up membership, with price increases “historically high”.

He said: “Employers are typically seeing their healthcare costs increase by 15 or 25% on policies renewing this year. In rare cases, we have had some clients see premium increases of more than 50% this year.”

And Matt Fletcher, a senior health insurance broker at Globacare, said that the cost of private health insurance schemes had risen by about 10 to 15%, but he had seen increases that were higher this year.