Last year was a good year for private medical insurance, cash plan policies in particular. Despite the UK heading into a recession, the number of people taking out private health cover actually rose and it seems that businesses weren’t put off by the financial situation either. The latest statistics released by Employee Benefits / Simplyhealth Healthcare Research 2009 suggest that the number of companies taking out private health insurance for their staff in the form of cash plan private medical insurance shot up by 180 percent in the past year. One reason for this huge increase in the number of companies holding employee health cover could be because they have decided to switch from a traditional private medical insurance policy to the more cost efficient cash plan policy, of which Freedom Healthnet is one supplier.


The research also found that small businesses (with a workforce of 100 or less) were the most likely to have a cash plan private medical insurance policy for its staff. Over a quarter of small businesses in the UK now hold one and this could be because they are one of the most affordable ways to provide private health cover, which is considered to be one of the top employee benefits a company can provide. In the past 12 months alone, the number of companies who have recognised the importance of providing good benefits for their workforce in the UK has risen from 5 percent to 14 percent. The recession may seem like a time when unnecessary expenses should be avoided but private medical insurance has defied this, showing that it is widely upheld in the view of bosses who recognise the importance of investing in the health of their staff.