Nearly one in eight Britons now have medical insurance, a near-record high, as delays to NHS care drive customers to go private.
The number of people with private medical insurance rose to a record high of 4.68 million by the end of 2023, according to the latest figures from healthcare analysts LaingBuisson.
But a total of eight million people in the UK can access private healthcare using insurance, as many policies also cover partners and children of the policyholder.
In total 11.8 per cent of the UK population is now covered by medical insurance, the highest proportion since 12.3 per cent in 2008.
That figure slumped after the financial crash, as many companies stopped providing medical insurance as a staff perk.
Four out of five people covered by this insurance, or 3.8 million people, have a policy provided by their employer, with the rest having a private policy.
Tim Read, LaingBuisson head of research, said: “The rise in people covered by health insurance is being driven by both a rise in the number of companies taking out insurance on behalf of their employees, but there has also been a rise in the number of individuals taking out their own policies.
“Given we’ve seen people’s satisfaction with the NHS plummeting in recent years, and also continued challenges in accessing both diagnostic and treatment services on the NHS, this rise is not a surprise.
“In the past people may have taken out health insurance because it offered a better quality of service than the NHS. But now they value timely access more highly and increasingly are willing to pay for it.”
The four biggest private medical insurance firms are Aviva, AXA Health, Bupa and Vitality Health, who control 95 per cent of the market between them.