Private Health Insurance Guide

Employers Pushing Benefits Schemes

Many employers are trying to tempt employees with benefits schemes as the levels at which pay increases are not sufficient enough.  The survey was carried out by Aon Hewitt and found that more employers are pushing incentives like group health, employee assistance programmes and gym memberships.

The survey found that the increase in money over the last six months remained unchanged for the last two business quarters at 3.2 per cent.  Although the increase is above what the countries inflation was during the same six month period.  The Customer Prices Index hit a high of 5.2 per cent by September last year although this was lower than the current CPI rate of 3.6 per cent.

Many companies are still trying work through challenges that the current recession is providing and this means companies are no longer able to provide the salary inflations that were the norm.  By incentivising staff to join group health schemes and providing gym memberships they feel that their staff will feel better about themselves in the long run and feel the benefits, albeit not financially.

It was noted in the survey that there has become a growing feeling amongst employers the inflation rates would take a tumble, all with the exception of the UK.  It was thought that salary increase budgets were slightly higher across Western Europe also.

 

Health-on-Line Vows Fresh Thinking Moving Forward

Bournemouth based company Health-on-Line has announced that they have been acquired by AXA PPP healthcare and with this vow to offer their customers and would-be customers a better, fresher means to health insurance.  The insurer will offer cheaper, comprehendible health insurance policies that can be amended to all levels of cover and will also offer extra types of cover to ensure the needs of their customers are met.

Health-on-Line has taken a new approach to an otherwise expensive industry.  They wish to make the cost of cover less and allow people to have a clear and concise view of what they are doing in their field.  They have taken steps which will allow them to offer a competitive rate whilst still maintaining their exemplary standard of customer service.

The partnership between AXA PPP and Health-on-Line will be born out and enriched by the formers 70 years experience in the health insurance market.  Health-on-Line’s customers will benefit from AXA PPP’s many services including their 24 hour helpline, Health at Hand.  Help will be on hand to deal with claims and any policy queries as well as important medical information.

The insurer works alongside over 15,000 clinicians with a wide variety of specialties and also uses the most carefully selected hospitals so that their patients have the confidence that they are well served in the best care environments available.

 

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Privatisation Beckons for NHS

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 19: Prime Minister David Cameron (L) sits next to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley at 10 Downing Street during a meeting with health professionals on April 19, 2011 in London, England. This is one of a number of meetings taking place to discuss the changes to the National Health Service. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

As the Health and Social Care bill has now been passed through the houses in Parliament and is now law it seems like the one thing that many said would happen looks like it may have made progress. 

Many feared that hospitals would become privatised by parts of the NHS being sold off to make the Trusts some money.  It looks like the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton has gone just that way.  There are negotiations happening that seem to be heavily in the favour that it will sold off as there are many interested parties circling like vultures to make an offer.

There are those that support these moves, with many believing that by privatising parts of the NHS it will create better competition and therefore better quality in our hospitals.  Many enjoy the benefits of PMI providers such as small businesses health insurance firms where they can enjoy knowing that they would get great coverage and all through their employee benefits schemes.

In addition to the Warwickshire based hospital there are more Trust hospitals looking to become private.  Burton Hospital, South Warwickshire and the Dudley Group trusts are taking meetings with stakeholders over the coming weeks to decide what the best for their hospitals is.

Whilst many are fretting over the possibility that many more parts of the NHS are due to become privatised the government have taken measures to prevent that from happening.  They will be creating an economic regulator which will be introduced to prevent anti competitive behaviours and this will hopefully provide a level state of play between private and public companies.

 

private medical insurance news

Where do you go for health insurance news?

Obviously at one time - pre-internet - you'd have to subsctibe to a specialist publication or maybe scan the pages of the FT to find out what was going on. But these days, there's a whole ot of info out there. The problem is knowing where to look. This is especially the case since we share a language with half the world and it's all too easy to stumble across what looks like industry news from these shores but is actually from further afield!

One of the most reliable sources for insurance news generally is over at insurancedaily.co.uk - they've got a very handy 'by product' filter so that if you're looking for news around one particular type of cover type - in our case private medical insurance - then you just pick it from the menu and all the latest news is displayed. VERY handy if all you need is a quick scan of the headlines and occasionally digging deeper into stories of interest.

Another place to look for insurance news is The Guardian, who have a section for insurance within the money part of their website - always worth checking out.

Although recently I have noticed that Google's news offering has been improved, enabling you to use the service almost as a kind of news hub/portal/aggregator - whatever the correct nomenclature is. And you can refine your results to pages from the UK at the click of your mouse, which is very handy indeed.

Another good way to gather information on your favourite subjects is to set up a Google (or Yahoo) news alert, and let the search engines do the work. the only slight drawback of this is that you'll need quite a specific term that you want to collect the news for - otherwise too many results will return and could clog up your inbox a little.

Health insurance at the Moneyfacts Consumer Awards

Last week at the HAC in London, the Moneyfacts Consumer Awards took place - with some of the leading personal financial services providers and utility companies scooping awards across a broad set of categories. From Remortgage Buyers' Choice to Best Current Account Provider, all the most important areas were represented with one winner for each category.

Moneyfacts' method of determining the winners for each category is as thorough as it is fair, with the comparison site surveying extensively (and sifting through half a million answers) plus carrying out independent technical product analysis - ensuring that the awards have a real basis in quality and customer satisfaction.

And the winner of Best Health Insurance Provider? AXA PPP healthcare - a private medical insurance provider who have made some news recently with their enhanced heart and cancer cover which is part of their ongoing 'heart and cancer commitment'.

 

Health care: the future

I suppose if you're styled as 'The Hospital of Silicon valley' then you'd need to be able to back it up with a whole host of dazzling tech.

Well, El Camino Hospital may not - yet - be at the stage where all diseases, ailments breakeages etc are made better with a nanosecond's laser-zap, but it still looks very interesting from this video.

Robots wandering around (actually not wandering but closely following the building's plan in order to deliver stuff as quickly as possible), ultra modern communications systems, and perhaps most futuristic sounding of all, lingustically gifted beds. An interesting video:

 

The American Health Insurance Problem

The American political scene is busy at the moment with many potential presidential candidates trying to make their case for election.

High on the agenda is the health insurance issue, with Mitt Romney subtly referring to this rather contentious issue when he claimed that he “liked being able to fire people who provide services to me”.

Unfortunately this is just not an option for the large number of Americans who receive their health insurance cover through their job. Around 45% of the population receive their medical insurance through work and very few actually have a choice of provider.

Some employers provide a couple of options for staff but it’s a long way from the freedom people have in the UK when selecting a private health insurance policy. As it stands the majority of employees need to take what’s on offer when they start their job.

The issue can be traced back to the Second World War, where the tax on employee benefits was removed. This incentivises businesses to increase employee benefits packages, which has led to a continual growth of the amount spent on healthcare in the USA.

Many people change jobs frequently, and so are not tied to a single policy or insurer for long. For the sake of convenience many simply take what is provided rather than take the time to find a private policy.

 

Mandatory Regulation Required say Healthcare Assistants

Nurses in England are ramping up their campaign in order to get ministers to toughen up onhealthcare support staff in England.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has been seeking change for some time in order to regulate the assessment regimes the  healthcare support staff recieve as they become more and more involved with patient care which would bring into line the types of evaluations that the support staff recieve with nurses.

Ministers have decided to introduce a voluntary system in the forthcoming years, however the RCN has come up against these proposals declaring they don't go far enough and have issued a petition as protest, complete with 2,500 signatures from front line staff.

In addition to this they have now also got nurses and healthcare support workers to throw their weight behind it by signing a letter citing that changes are required.  This document has been handed to ministers in the House of Lords which will then be debated as part of the Heath and Social Care Bill.

The changes that are happening are not thought to affect the medical insurance market and is solely for changes that are due for the NHS.  Ministers argue that as healthcare support workers are supervised the current proposals would be enough to move forward.

 

 

 

How does health insurance work?

Interesting video -

 

 

38% of Europeans have mental health problems

Depression, anxiety, insomnia...all mental health problems, all discussed far less than physical health conditions.

But while they might not always be as visible in the public sphere, a study has found that as many as 38% of Europeans are suffering from mental health problems.

Spanning 30 countries over a three year period, the study found that Europe had an "exceedingly high burden" of mental health disorders and brain illnesses - with only a third seeking professional treatment for illness.

This, the report warned, could cost billions as European countries are faced with increasing numbers of those in need of treatment, sick days off work or social care.

This is the first major investigation of mental health across Europe since 2005, and covered a wide range of neurological conditions, from depression to dementia and stress to addiction and schizophrenia.