Bupa has been the latest to warn about the nearing ‘affordability crunch' in the private medical insurance market as premiums continue to rise. What genuine, clean slate innovation would you like to see in PMI - and how possible will real innovation be?
Adrian Humphreys, managing director, WPA’s corporate division
Just because some in the medical insurance industry are recalibrating their businesses does not mean wholesale reinvention is required – there are a number who are doing very well. Calling for more innovation is a cheap shot by those who cannot think of anything better to say. The challenge is more fundamental and the opportunities exciting.
The ‘everything to everyone for nothing’ product has always been an unrealistic aspiration. Today, some are paying the price of being beguiled by premium income, turnover, market share and profit-led strategies. The fundamental of any business relationship is that of a partnership of the participants, which is bound to be strained if one takes advantage of another.
Understanding and agreeing what we do is an imperative. For me, it is helping our customers fund their healthcare, giving them control of their recovery and a choice of where, when and by whom they are treated. We undermine their freedom to choose at our peril.
Service should be a hygiene factor but too often we see bad decisions putting the industry in a bad light. Insurers need to keep promises to pay a claim when, and if, it happens.
Cheap products will win customers, but communicating their value keeps them. There are some amazing technologies that enhance customers’ experiences of the industry; customers can do as much of the administration of their policies and claims as they wish. The opportunities in the PMI market are there if we can get the basics right.
Sonia Wolsey Cooper, membership and people director, AXA PPP Healthcare
Clean slate innovations do not grow on trees but there are a couple of important developments afoot that could be a big boost.
Healthy competition by healthcare service providers is crucial and, like the Office of Fair Trading, we are concerned by revelations of incentive payments to consultants by private hospitals to treat patients. It is a conflict of interest that can lead to unnecessary treatment and increased costs.
Specialists’ foremost duty should be to provide genuinely needed care cost effectively. We hope the Competition Commission inquiry will call for the end of these questionable practices. Better competition between providers should help to keep a lid on increasing healthcare costs and, coupled with greater transparency around providers’ services, patients will be much better placed to make informed choices about meeting their healthcare needs.
