Demand for dental plans and insurance coverage is growing significantly, especially with small business and group scheme customers, according to advisers.
The comments come the same day that MPs released a damning review of the crisis in NHS dentistry services and a lack of action by successive Conservative governments over the last decade.
As a result of the increasingly desperate state of public access, insurance products are becoming more in demand.
Isaac Feiner, managing director of Lifepoint Healthcare, (pictured) who reports his clients value Bupa’s dental offering, told Health & Protection that consumers have been increasingly demanding dental cover.
“So people call us up and if they’re consumers who want dental cover we direct them to the right consumer product because we don’t do consumer dental here,” he said.
“But if it’s a business, this is not just HR but people running their own small family businesses, they have the eligibility to get products through a business dental plan.
“They’re taking out those plans to help their families to be prepared to mitigate costs if something happens.
“People are taking responsibility if they have the right eligibility to put in place products to protect themselves from the financial burden of expensive dental treatment when it comes up.”
Adding dental to PMI
And Steve Ellis, associate director at Prosperis, told Health & Protection: “We are adding an awful lot of optical and dental cover to private medical insurance (PMI).”
He also noted Canada Life’s Toothfairy add-on to its group risk products had “gone down really well” with his clients, adding that “people are able to find out where availability is”.
“But none of that actually gets more feet on the ground in terms of new dentists, does it?”
In a statement Dan Crook, protection sales director at Canada Life said: “Today’s select committee report into NHS dentistry paints a bleak picture for those on waiting lists for dental appointments.
“With demand for dentistry services vastly outstripping supply, we are now seeing reports of increasing absenteeism and presenteeism as a direct result.”
He also detailed some of the high interest since launching the Toothfairy add-on service in April.
“We’ve seen huge demand for virtual appointments which mirrors the report’s findings around demand,” he continued.
“To date, 70% of queries have been resolved with the assistance of an in-app dentist,” he said.
Though providing an individual PMI perspective, Emma Astley, owner of Cover My Bubble, said dentistry was not proving a primary driver behind calls to her advice business.
“We don’t have many people coming to us about that,” Astley said.
“They are more bothered about having virtual GP services and the mental health support.
“We have not had anyone talk about dentists and wanting to have medical insurance because of that reason.”