Private Health Care Booms in Britain as State-Run Health Service Buckles

British patients are turning to private health care as the National Health Service struggles with mass strikes, long waiting lists and budget constraints.

Insurance company Vitality Health Ltd. said its policies cover nearly a million people in the UK, compared with between 650,000 and 700,000 in 2019. Circle Health Group Ltd. said it was serving nearly two million patients as demand for its most popular services rose 25% in a year.

The state-run NHS has struggled with pent-up demand following the Covid pandemic, adding to demographic pressures from an aging population. Strikes have resulted in chronic backlogs and a shortage of beds in some hospitals. The government has threatened legal action against a walkout by nurses scheduled for the upcoming bank holiday weekend, after its latest pay offer failed to appease workers.

Aviva Plc said that its patient numbers had grown from 900,000 to 1.1 million in two years, adding that concerns about the NHS are “a significant driver” of growth.

Hip and knee replacements are the fastest-growing procedures to be done privately, the Private Healthcare Insurance Network said. The bulk of this growth came through an increase in self-pay admissions, where patients fund the costs directly themselves rather than through insurance.

Private health care procedures paid out of pocket have risen more than 33% since before the pandemic, according to PHIN data comparing the third quarter of last year with the same period in 2019.

GP Appointments

Britons are also turning to private care as it becomes more difficult to book an NHS appointment with a general practitioner. Babylon, an app that provides video or phone consultations for £59 ($73.28) each, said appointments are up 70% compared with the same period last year.

Insurer Simplyhealth Ltd. said it had seen a similar trend, with use of virtual GPs up 59% in a year. “People are realizing that they don’t have to wait weeks,” said Katie Wadey, the company’s chief product officer.

Vitality said that more than half its claims were for primary care in September 2022, up from 32% in 2019. AXA SA, another insurer, said that demand had shot up for for Doctor at Hand, its virtual GP service. Pre-pandemic the service provided roughly 17,000 appointments a month, but now regularly exceeds 50,000 a month. “This is likely to be as a result of stretched NHS services, as well as greater awareness of health issues following the pandemic,” said a spokesperson in an email.

Work Perks

Health insurance as a work benefit is also becoming more common, according to providers. Vitality has seen a “significant increase in demand from SMEs,” said Neville Koopowitz, the company’s chief executive, adding that the policies were helping small companies compete for talent in a tight labor market.

AXA said there was “increased interest” in its premiums from employers, although it said the cost-of-living crisis could weigh on demand.

Interest in health insurance appears to be growing among young adults, who are not traditionally the target market. More than a third of Simplyhealth’s virtual GP appointments are made by 26- to 35-year-olds, while Aviva has “noted many individuals considering private health insurance for the first time, including significant interest from younger age groups.”

–With assistance from Laura Benitez and Sabah Meddings.

Photograph: An in-service ambulance for the East of England ambulance service parked outside Southend ambulance station in Southend, UK, on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022. Photo credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg