The Government should ease the tax burden on businesses offering private medical insurance (PMI) if it wants to see more people return to work, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), writes Johanna Gornitzki.
Speaking at the annual Rehabilitation First Conference: Dismantling the Barriers, the ABI's head of health, Richard Walsh, said the Government should "remove the tax disincentives on private medical insurance" if it wishes to decrease the burden of absence on employers. This is because the majority of corporate insurance schemes now offer rehabilitation services, which is said to decrease the problem.
Walsh said that it is crucial the industry and Government begin to work together in order to solve this issue. "The ABI is ready to work with the Government on this. Private funding and provision of rehabilitation are not competing with the public sector but are complimentary to State fundings and the NHS," he said.
Currently, more than 1 million people are off work due to ill health each week and while the majority of them return to work after two to three days, 80% of the people who have been off work for six months will never return. This is costing the British industry £13 billion per year.
