Aviva reported a 25 per cent jump in private health insurance customers in the first three months of 2023, as NHS staff went on strike and the health service struggled with backlogs. Chief executive Amanda Blanc described private healthcare as a “positive complement to the NHS” in difficult times. But what’s the end result? A recent Boardroom Sensemaker examined lessons from the US, where annual premiums for employer-sponsored healthcare have soared over the last decade. Currently, nearly 7 in 10 FTSE100 companies provide some form of private healthcare to employees. Britain’s new appetite for private treatment could, in the long run, turn out to be an expensive fix.
