The cash plan private health insurance market continued to grow even further throughout the recession according to the latest figures. In 2009, the cash plan sector made £570 million according to the statistics from Datamonitor. This meant the market grew a further 1.2 percent despite the effects of the economic downturn. Last year, figures astonished experts when it was revealed that the number of people with a cash plan private medical insurance policy reached a record level during the credit crunch. The success of this type of private medical insurance has been put down to the fact that it is a much cheaper alternative to traditional policies, sometimes cutting premiums by almost three quarters.

The affordability of cash plan policies has made them more attractive to companies in particular, according to Mahreen Hussein who wrote the report. These companies, who may have been looking to spread out their healthcare costs, or cut them down without cancelling their corporate health cover altogether, may have discovered cash plans as an attractive alternative. Not only are they much more cost effective, but they still carry the benefits associated with traditional private health insurance. In fact, Freedom’s policies provide access to a greater choice of hospitals than its rivals as it has no hospital lists. This means that patients have a near enough unlimited choice as to where they wish to be treated and may mean a quicker recovery if they are in a much more convenient location than they might have been otherwise. The Datamonitor report also stated that employee health cover will be a fundamental part of growth for the cash plan insurance sector in the coming years.