Private Health Insurance Guide

Human Resources Wide of the Mark with Benefits

Trade magazine Personnel Today and Unum have carried out a survey which uncovers the fact that many HR departments are missing the mark when it comes to rolling out staff benefits such as private medical insurance and dental. Other “soft” benefits such as gym memberships are more widely communicated throughout through email and the intranet, especially in larger corporations.

Around 275 HR professionals were questioned and ranked pensions, life assurance and medical insurance as the most important benefits to them. The survey displayed a distinct disconnection between the benefits they value and the ones which are more readily communicated. It is clear by the poll that more people require to be educated about their benefit schemes.

The survey showed that the majority (72 per cent) of organisations offered a contributed pension scheme and a further 63 per cent of companies offered an employee assistance programme whilst just under a fifth offer group medical insurance as an employee benefit including dental insurance and probably less popular personal accident insurance.

The survey was useful in the respect it highlighted that there is a distinct lack of communication or rather a lack of the correct information communicated. Possibly, if more people were to take the benefits on offer such as medical insurance then the more popular it could be and more policies could be undertaken. Also benefits such as employee assistance programmes more people may get help a problem they otherwise would have left alone.

SMEs and workforce benefits: offering the best

Just found an interesting piece in the Telegraph which was published in July, entitled "How can SMEs offer 'big business' staff incentives?"

This is a question that many SME (small and medium enterprise) owners will have asked themselves at one point or another. Studies have shown that employees value working for SMEs for a number of reasons. Research has found that people feel their promotion prospects are excellent within a smaller organisation, and also job satisfaction rates highly too. But it's often the case that bigger corporate type organisations are often well placed to offer a wider range of incentives.

So, how can SMEs offer the type and scale of workforce employment benefits that's more associated with the larger type of company?

In the article a number of people are interviewed, with one person giving an insight into their own workplace's way with benefits - saying that it's all about getting 'the mix' right, and carefully planning how the money is spent. Benefits mentioned include insurances, healthcare and profit related bonus.

If you're looking into purchasing business health insurance for your organisation, it's worth seeing what's on offer. If you get group health insurance quotes from a  provider that offers flexible insurance for SMEs it's possible to get an idea of the cost, and of course health cover can be tailored to suit your needs. Meaning that you can choose the level of cover, not paying for anything that you don't require.

Recent figures show that company paid PMI is seeing increasing demand - which not only suggests that employers see it as a value adding benefit, but also that it's valued highly by staff as well.

Private healthcare - cataract surgery

If you've ever wondered what's involved in treating cateracts - this video provides an interesting introduction to cataract surgery under private healthcare. It's a very common procedure, and is quick to do - but if you have any concerns about this condition or questions about its treatment, be sure of course to consult your doctor.

 

Better health and the workplace

Health for business is, broadly speaking, a relatively new endeavour. Obviously health and safeyty legislation has been in place in one form or another for over a century (depending on how you define it and whch countries you look at). But in terms of looking to ensure staff health, we've moved on in leaps and bounds over the past few decades.

In fact you only have to look at what was on offer in the average workplace canteen of just two or three decades ago to see just how much the workplace has changed. Where once the (ahem) cuisine on offer was a mass of pies, chips and beans, these days there are things like salmon being served up - things that back in the day would only really have graced the table on special occasions.

All this is partly down to a change in attitudes in general regarding food.  In the postwar years, frugality ruled. This may have been healthy to an extent, in terms of people generally not overeating, but it has to be said that in those days there were far more cases of conditions resulting from vitamin deficiencies and other nutrients such as calcium and iron.

As we all became better off, better fed and batter catered for, though, the rise of obesity became a social and political reality. And it seems that it's only just in the last ten years or so that healthy eating has become - if not universal - then certainly mainstream - with fruit being consumed in meetings and sold in outlets where it wouldn't previously have been seen.

Workplace health-wise, this year we've seen figures for uptake of private health insurance for business rise, despite the obviously still quite challenging conditions many organisations have been facing.

Promoting workplace health can be done in a nmber of ways such as by providing nutritious (and delicious) food onsite as well as by offering training - in one case we read about a couple of months ago, an SME in England actually even had a nutritionist come in and hold a staff healthy cooking workshop. 

It's actually become a bit of a hackneyed phrase to say that investing in good staff health has a positive effect on productivity and the bottom line. But it seems that, like many hackneyed phrases, it became so because of the truth at its core.

Indoor laundry drying - is it a risk to health?

Those of us who live in a flat and don't have space fro a tumble dryer aren't really spoilt for options when it comes to drying clothes.. it's simply a case of hang them on a drying frame and sticking them by an open window. Or if it's winter, by a radiator. Ikay, so you could get one of those two in one wsher dryer machines but I used to have one of them and it didn't dry clothes in a very good way - just made them hot and steamy then sucked the steam away.

According to the news today drying clothes inside could actually negative have health  effects. Basically it's all to do with the amount of moisture in the air - and those prone to asthma could have their condition worsened as a result.

According to a BBC report on the topic, when you dry a full load of washing there's actually two litres' worth of water that gets emitted off them.

Small business and health insurance

The government has been talking quite a lot lately about small business. it's one of those areas of the economy that can sometimes be overlooked, in part because many small businesses are actually so small that they don't need to file their accounts.

The SME is of course not really a type of business that's easy to categorise other than by size. And of course there's that old but reliable saying about acorns and oak trees: many world-beating brand names started from humble beginnings. McDonalds was originally just one hamburger retailer on its own, Tesco was a market stall, and so on. So it's fair to assume that among the record number of SME businesses that now exist in the UK, some of them will be happy and sustainable at SME scale, while there may be few who go on to be the colossi of tomorrow, with a payroll of thousands and a world famous name.

And in a suitably post- London 2012 Olympics phrase, the Mayor of London recently called for conditions to be created whereby small businesses would be the "gold medal winners" of the economy.

It's beem in the news recently than business health insurance is becoming more popular, and as the number of sole traders and SME businesses continues to go up, there is likely to be a greater number of small business health insurance quote seekers.

What's your thoughts on the rising numbers of small businesess within the UK? Have we become a nation of entrepreneurial types? Or is it because more people are setting up on their own for other reasons?

Health and the ageing population

This week the UN said that more will need to be done across the world in order to prepare for the ageing population - and especially within developing countries.

The population predictions show just how big the scale of the challenge is likely to be - with the amount of people over 6o reaching a billion by 2022.

To put this number in perspective, the entire planet's population was a billion in the earlier part of the 19th century. So it's not difficult to view the world's population incease as the explosion it's often termed as.

What it means for governments across the globe is that there obviously will need to be measures taken to ensure that the older population is provided for - with things like pension schemes being introduced where they don't already exist.

In the UK, many people already have private healthcare insurance, which means that when they need any treatment they're covered for it happens outside of the state healthcare system, although in some cases, although there are cases where an NHS hopsital is privately run. Of course, there are likely to be changes in the balance of private and state medical care, and it may well be that we see a bigger uptake of private health care in times to come - especially if the ageing population puts a strain on the state health system.

It's worth beariing in mind that - while the population, and especially the ageing population - is more or less certain to grow over the coming decades - the future is difficult to predict, so technological advances could mean that solutions are quickly provided in terms of challenges to health, pensions and welfare systems.

PMI - things to consider and questions to ask

If you're considering taking out health cover then you'll prbably have a list of questions to ask before you go ahead and purchase your policy. Buying medical cover isn't a big outlay but you'll want to know that you're insured for all the things you require. So, here are some of the areas you should concentrate on when you're looking at private health care quotes.

Price - get a plan that suits your budget. Choose the level of cover you need, and make sure you're covered for all that you require.

Existing conditions - health insurance is designed to cover conditions that develop once your plan is in place. 

What's not covered - you will need to check with your provider to see what you're not insured for. Things like cosmetic surgery, for instance, are not covered in most plans.

If you have more specifics to find out, such as the location and number of hospitals available, you should be able to phone your provider - or intended provider - and find out. 

And if you're looking to get affordable cover, then it's worth looking at what's available. For instance there are plans where you get NHS treatment within a certain number of weeks, but if your NHS treatment isn't available within that time you go private immediately.

You can buy private medical insurance easily and quickly online - just decide what level of cover you need and you can get a quote very quickly. It pays to do a bit of research first and find out how it all works in terms of claims etc, then you'll be able to get the most out of your policy should you require any treatment you're eligible for.

 

Group Health Insurance: How does it Work?

Have you ever wondered how your company’s group health insurance scheme worked?

Understand how it works

Working for a smaller company you might notice that your health premium might be slightly different to that of a friend who works for the bigger firm down the road.  A group plan is not only dependant on your health but also the health of employees in the programme.  Your company will then approach several health insurers and calculate the number of factors to determine what type of risk that would present itself.

What makes up your policy?

Age plays a large factor when it comes to shelling out on health insurance each month.  If your company employs many people who are upwards of their late 40’s and heading towards their late 50’s then the reality is that the policy will most likely cost more than a company whose main hiring policy sees a lot of college graduates.

The type of industry is also important to what type of policy you get.  Some industries are more prone to claims than others such as teachers, nurses and construction workers compared to that of retailers, technology workers.

Choosing a company with lower premiums

Larger companies tend to offer lower employee rates as the risk is spread out.  The smaller the firm that you work for the more gender and age will play a part in how much it will cost.

Companies who put an emphasis on health and wellbeing such as gym memberships and weight management classes may be able to obtain smaller premiums.

 

NHS Stands to Lose Patients to Health Insurance Schemes

Finance experts have warned that the NHS should start to distinguish which of its services should be kept free as it faces up to a decade of cost cutting and austerity measures.  The institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) stated that the 4 year period ahead would the tightest in half a century.

The report concludes that the serious consideration is required into the current NHS spending trend and thoughts should turn towards charging for some services and the levels of taxation that would be required to raise the relevant funds.  The NHS in England, in order to save the required amount, would need to make cutbacks on services at a rate of 2.5 per cent between 2015 and 2017.

The report which was funded by the Nuffield Trust stated that the increase in health expenditure between 2015 and 2022 would leave the budget for growing less quickly than what is needed to service the health of an ageing population.  The idea of taxation may put a lot of people off the idea of remaining with the NHS

Many people may grow tired with being taxed heavily to fund what is already an underwhelming health service.  The only beneficiaries of this are surely the health insurance companies who can offer a better level of choice and service to the customer, albeit one that requires a monthly payment to secure such services.

What seems is certain is that the NHS must face up to the harsh realities that has been bestowed upon them in order to safeguard a free, public health service.  Whether or not changes to the health and social care bill will make a difference, well, only time will tell.........