Take-up of employer funded cash-plans increased by 15.4% as ‘polarised trends' dominated the cash plan market, Laing and Buisson has revealed.
The healthcare intelligence provider's Health Cover UK Market Report 2013 said employer funded cash plans increased by 15.4%, reaching 588,000 contributors. In contrast, individual individual/employee paid contributors fell by 3.7%. This moved the individual total to a "historic low" of 2.01m.
Overall, the number of contributors to health cash plans in the UK was flat in 2012. However it rose by 0.1% to reach 2.6m at the start of 2013. This has followed four consecutive annual falls which saw volume demand contract by 12.4% between 2008 and 2011 inclusive, equivalent to 367,000 contributors.
The report said such flat demand was underpinned by "continued polarised trends between sectors in the cash plan market."
In addition, spending on health cash plans fell by 2.6% in real terms during 2012, though a sharp deceleration from 2011 and 2010, when spending fell by 7.5% in each year. The average price paid for cash plans, at an estimated £180, was more robust than in previous years.
As benefits paid out decreased by more than cash plan spending in 2012, down 3.9% in real terms, margins for cash plan providers moved up to 30% from 29% in 2011, the research found.
Meanwhile, while demand for dental cover had appeared the strongest during the recession, the number of ‘standalone' dental benefit plan subscribers decreased. This fell by 0.9% in 2012 to reach 3.24m at the start of 2013, following a small increase of 0.6% a year earlier in 2011.
Meanwhile, the provider described the dental market as "subdued", with a fall in dental capitation subscribers of 1.7% over the year to 2.56m, which has been attributed to the current economic climate. However, there was a 2.2% increase in dental insurance subscribers to settle at 673,000 at the start of 2013.
Laing and Buisson said this result confirmed dental insurance's "continued popularity as an employee benefit with employers. "
