PMI: Clients may be left without cover if WPA forces swap to 'shared' scheme
Policyholders with fully comprehensive cover from WPA could be left uninsured in the future, following the insurer's decision to transfer all customers to its 'shared responsibility' scheme.
Speaking at Laing & Buisson's private healthcare insurance conference, WPA's chief executive Julian Stainton declared all its existing private medical insurance (PMI) policyholders would be switched over to the scheme within two years.
Shared responsibility means policyholders are offered cheaper premiums in return for paying a percentage of treat-ment costs. Charlie MacEwan, head of communications at WPA, confirmed if policyholders want to keep comprehensive cover, they would have to move insurers. However, older policy-holders, or those with pre-existing conditions, may find this impossible.
"We are happy for those customers who do not want to take up shared responsibility to go to a competitor, but we will highlight the savings they could make with shared respons-ibility," said MacEwan.
"As a business we have had to make a choice, and as a customer, they will have to make a choice. We have to run a business. Some policyholders will feel they have been treated badly. However, we will not leave people in the lurch as we will keep them informed of what is happening when we can."
WPA confirmed it is currently taking on new business for fully comprehensive policies, but is not informing these customers they will eventually be transferred to a shared res-ponsibility scheme. MacEwan said customers would not be told until they had decided precise timescales.
Peter Bye, director of The Private Health Partnership, said WPA had a duty to continue existing cover.
"Insurers have a moral responsibility to continue to provide the cover that people took out in the first place. There is nothing wrong with the idea of shared responsibility, but people with existing medical conditions will find it very difficult to get alternative cover if they do not want to go down that route," said Bye.
At the time of going to press, WPA U-turned on its official statement, saying that because no definite plans or timescales were officially in place, the plans were speculative. Contra-dicting his previous statement, MacEwan said WPA had no plans for the compulsory trans-fer of existing policyholders with fully comprehensive cover to shared responsibility, but WPA would stop selling full refund traditional PMI without shared responsibility in the future.
