An early day motion in the House of Commons has requested that the Secretary of State for health to...
An early day motion in the House of Commons has requested that the Secretary of State for health to consider the contribution of the British Health Care Association (BHCA) when future decisions on health and taxation policies are made.
The organisation, which represents not-for-profit healthcare cash plan providers, said the reason behind the motion was to raise the profile of the BHCA and increase awareness of what they do. Commenting on the motion, Carolyn Bell, BHCA chief executive, said: 'We do a lot of work for the NHS and we feel it is appropriate this should be brought to the attention of MPs. One benefit of being kept at the forefront of legislator's minds is that they will take into account the lack of funds to deal with changing regulation, as it is the for-profit organisations that are able to afford appropriate action. However such costs may damage groups such as BHCA.'
She added: 'We would hope that they bear us in mind when making policy decisions as we give a lot of money to the NHS.'
Bell pointed out that cash plans can be an important part of a person's healthcare insurance. She said: 'IFAs need to look at cash plans as part of the overall selling proposition for health insurance. There may be times when a healthcare cash plan as an add-on will secure the sale of PMI, providing the extras not covered by a budget or a high excess PMI policy, and the opportunities for corporate sales offer substantial rewards.'
BHCA's membership received £256m from their 1.7 million subscribers in 2000/2001. They paid out £200m in benefits and donated £2.4m to the NHS.
