Legal & General Healthcare has entered the healthcare cash plan market with the launch of Essentials...
Legal & General Healthcare has entered the healthcare cash plan market with the launch of Essentials Cash.
The product offers three different premium rates and levels of cover and is aimed at the group market.
Most healthcare cash plans offer a co-payment arrangement in which they pay between 50%-75% of medical costs, but Essentials Cash will pay 100% of optical and dental costs per year up to the maximum determined by the premium taken out.
Another key feature of the plan is that the waiting period before a claim can be made is three months, whereas for most schemes it is six months.
Andy Sampson, head of planning and research at Legal & General, said: "We believe there is a gap in the market between State-provided healthcare and private healthcare in terms of PMI, particularly for people of a lower age or socioeconomic group."
The plan has three levels of benefits and differentiates between single person and family cover.
Premiums for a single person start at £11.50 per month.
"With people staying single for longer, we thought it unfair to penalise them by not recognising this," Sampson said.
The premiums for the maximum level of cover are £23 per month for single cover and £37 per month for couples or families. With this level of cover, people staying in hospital as an inpatient or following an accident would receive £60 per night for up to 50 nights.
L&G said the healthcare cash plan market is currently buoyant, but seems to be focused on group employee arrangements, especially with the highly anticipated launch of stakeholder pensions next year.
Sampson added: "Due to stakeholder pensions we are only targeting the scheme at affinity groups and workplaces at the moment. We are not promoting it directly to individuals."
