National waiting lists make no difference to the number of people who take out private medical insurance. That’s according to one study that investigated into the many factors that could encourage a person to seek private healthcare. Gavin Wallis, in his 2003 ‘The Determinants of Demand for Private Medical Insurance: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey’ found that it was regional waiting times that actually confirmed people’s worries about being treated in an NHS facility. Despite the huge press coverage given to the latest waiting time statistics in the national press, it seems that people responded to those results that were much more relevant to themselves. Wallis also found that a drop in waiting times meant that people were less inclined to take out private health insurance, but the most recent national statistics on this stating that the majority of waiting lists are now under the 18 week target could now not be as significant as the government may hope if regional results are not as successful.


Locality was also an important factor in a different area of a person’s decision to purchase private medical insurance or not. The availability of private medical facilities to a person’s home was found to be more important than even the number of private healthcare centres in a certain region. The benefit of having private health insurance, particularly one which has no hospital lists like the policies offered by Freedom Healthnet, is that the most convenient hospital can be chosen. This could even be the facility closest to a person’s work, or a family member who can offer some care after an operation for example.