Private medical insurance (PMI) should be focusing cancer care on prevention, screening and diagnosis, and greater access to whole workforces, according to Check4Cancer.
Professor Gordon Wishart, founder and chief medical officer of the organisation noted the measures were important given the UK’s poor outcomes for cancer compared to peer nations.
Speaking at the Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries (AMII) Autumn Summit, Professor Wishart urged the industry to do more earlier in the cancer process.
He said the future of PMI strategy on cancer “should include increased focus on cancer screening and prevention, as well as more fast access, value-based diagnostic pathways”.
He added that PMI’s role in supporting a workplace strategy “should include starting to explore cancer risk assessment, screening and prevention, while encouraging exercise and healthy living.”
That strategy should also include providing optional access to fast access diagnosis and a gradual widening of cancer genetic testing.
But he said that solutions should be for the whole workforce, noting that not all employees had PMI and that insurance was not currently positioned to adopt strategies with future return on investment.
‘Lagging behind peers’
Professor Wishart highlighted the role of insurers as the UK has a long way to go to catch up with its peers in terms of better treating cancer in its population.
“The UK is still lagging behind other comparable countries in cancer survival,” he said.
The UK has fewer doctors and nurses per capita than comparable countries and it also has fewer CT and MRI scanners – with Japan having about 10 times as many.
“We have a massive workforce problem,” Professor Wishart continued, noting that the UK just does not have enough people training to become doctors.
“That cannot be fixed quickly – so that is one of the great problems.”
He said the real solution is early cancer detection, as that will increase the likelihood of the patient to survive.
