Advisers are particularly positive about the group private medical insurance (PMI) market with an intensifying war for talent proving the primary motivator for firms taking out new schemes and extending cover beyond the boardroom.
A poll of advisers and intermediaries gathered for Health & Protection’s Health Summit this week revealed 84% were either somewhat positive or very positive about the group PMI sector.
Two thirds (65%) of attendees cited recruitment and retention as the biggest issue driving their clients strategies and decisions – almost four times the next most influential factor of costs and finances (17%).
These results were backed-up by speakers who noted they were seeing more vrigin business coming to market and employers widening eligibility.
Dr Wolfgang Seidl, partner, workplace health consulting leader at Mercer, (pictured centre) revealed there was certainly an increase in demand among companies for such benefits – a trend he predicted would continue for the remainder of the year.
“The reason we see now that it is becoming more popular – by not a huge margin but still – is because organisations have an attraction and retention issue and therefore you see a lot of virgin schemes,” he said.
“Also what we will be mentioning again and again and I’m sure was driving a lot of Budget decisions, is the waiting lists in the NHS, the huge backlog so that is another driver for it.
“And the third driver that I see is organisations are trying in the benefits approach to be more equitable and therefore there is a need to catch up for some elements of their workforce to make the schemes more equitable.”
Fellow panellist John Kerr, director at Incorporate Benefits, (pictured right) agreed – citing the example of one of his hospitality clients who put PMI in place for all of its employees.
“That was a major, major step up for them and one that they thought was necessary and was part of their retention strategy,” he said.
“Also there is the principle of equality which seems to be starting to kick in for a lot of these companies at the moment where the HR leaders are turning around and saying it’s not fair that just the management has this.
“This should be something that runs down especially with hospital waiting lists being the way they are and particularly in the jurisdiction that I come from [Northern Ireland]. It’s incredibly appalling at the moment,” he added.