Intermediary confidence in the international private medical insurance (IPMI) market has dipped to levels seen following the Covid-19 pandemic, Health & Protection’s latest IPMI Report has found.
In contrast provider confidence in the market appears far more buoyant with only limited concerns about its short-to-medium term prospects.
More than 200 intermediaries responded to this year’s research and gave their views on overall market confidence and how their business income had fared in the last 12 months.
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Positivity slides
Notably, barely two thirds of intermediaries were either fairly positive or very positive about the IPMI market at present – down from 77% of intermediaries in both the previous two years.
There was a drop in both those who were fairly positive and very positive, the number who were neutral climbed more than 10 percentage points to almost a third while small signs of outright negativity were starting to be seen.
Results followed a similar trend with a significant downturn in confidence for the next two years.
While more than seven in 10 (73.2%) advisers expected the IPMI market to be either fairly strong or very strong in two years’ time, this was down from 81.5% a year ago.
The biggest change was those who expected the market to be very strong which fell from 35.3% to 21.9%.
Reduced confidence in the IPMI market may reflect a drop in income over the last year as only 58.1% of respondents reported their business income had grown over the last year, down from 68.9% in 2024.
Furthermore, the percentage of advisers reporting a significant increase on the previous year halved to 13.1% from 26.9% in the previous year.
Sentiments were more bullish on future prospects for business in two years’ time although this too was tempered somewhat.
Provider’s upbeat
In contrast to advisers, provider respondents to the research were more upbeat about the market’s prospects.
Some concerns were raised but mostly these were overwhelmingly overridden by positive sentiment for the immediate future.
“There are currently macro political policies that are creating global economic uncertainties that may have a short-term impact, however, our long-term view is of future growth and continuing to enhance our value proposition to meet the demands of this growth,” said one provider.
Another added: “The market remains strong with tailwinds that will create growth opportunities and the need to provide solutions to customers and clients.”
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