In July, the government published its response to its consultation document, ‘Health is everyone’s business‘.
When the consultation was first published, we were disappointed to see it was close to silent on the role of the insurance sector. Additionally, it didn’t embrace the wealth of expertise of the wider vocational rehabilitation landscape within its medicalised view.
This time, it was therefore encouraging to see a headlined section on the role of insurance and the work the government is doing to embrace what the industry can offer.
As well as undertaking work with Group Risk Development (Grid) specifically to produce a consensus statement to engage all interested parties, it has worked with the industry more generally to promote the reality that protection products provide many benefits, in addition to the obvious financial ones which can help improve the health of the nation.
There have also been positive steps to harness the skills and abilities of other vocational rehabilitation experts beyond just occupational health practitioners, widening the scope of this term to include wider vocational rehabilitation as well as other return-to-work and stay-at-work services.
So, what next?
Improving innovations that increase access to return-to-work support for SMEs and the self-employed must remain a focus.
There are close to 1.5 million SME businesses employing people in the UK and, while just over 90% of employers with group income protection cover are SMEs, this number of 16,244 scarcely begins to address the enormous potential to support businesses better.
Actively embracing early, collaborative and work-focused intervention using a biopsychosocial approach, as well as engaging with vocational rehabilitation providers to grow and develop their understanding of the insurance landscape, will help us all form progressive and much-needed partnerships with the market.
There is definitely scope to grow such collaborations.
Moving away from a traditional insurance mindset of relying on policy conditions and a medical model approach has been and continues to be driven by colleagues with strong rehabilitation capabilities in many parts of the world.
Financially, there are benefits to everyone; in the UK alone, we calculate conservatively that £8 of the reserves held for potential long-term payment were released for every £1 spent on rehabilitation in 2020, so it makes economic sense as well as supporting the member and business covered.
There is not just an economic benefit for the insurance sector. In addition to the labour market preserving the skills and knowledge of people who have been able to remain in or return to work, the wider economy retains their earning and tax and national insurance paying ability too.
It’s clear progress has been made since the initial consultation in 2019. Looking forward, the recent consensus statement will usefully engage a wider group around the common theme and we should now be at the table for whatever discussions and actions need to happen.
Health really is everyone’s business.