Concerns around NHS waiting times/service is the key reason consumers chose to take out private medical insurance (PMI), a GlobalData survey has found. At the same time, PMI admissions have risen to 17% above pre-Covid-19 levels, as NHS waiting lists exceed seven million.
GlobalData’s 2025 UK Insurance Consumer Survey found that the leading trigger for UK consumers to purchase PMI was concern about NHS waiting times and service, cited by 24.8% of respondents. This was followed by having no specific event (13.7%), recommendations from family or friends (10.6%), and worries about their own health (9.3%).
Meanwhile, Broadstone’s analysis of the latest Private Healthcare Information Network data shows there were 338,000 PMI-funded admissions in the first half of 2025. This is slightly up on the 336,000 recorded in the same period of 2024 and marks the highest number of first-half PMI admissions on record. Compared with pre-pandemic levels, PMI-funded admissions have grown by nearly a fifth, rising 17% from 290,000 in the first half of 2019.
Meanwhile, NHS waiting lists have expanded from 4.24 million in March 2020 to 7.37 million in June 2025. Although the list appears to have plateaued at around 7.4 million, efforts to reduce the backlog have been slow and repeatedly disrupted by industrial action, hindering progress on the NHS recovery plan.
The combined findings suggest that insurers are facing a structural, not temporary, shift in the PMI market, with clear strategic implications for product, pricing, and distribution. With almost a quarter of consumers citing concern over NHS waiting times and service as their main reason for purchasing PMI, and PMI-funded admissions now 17% above pre-pandemic levels, insurers should plan for sustained higher demand and utilisation rather than a post-Covid-19 spike.
This creates an opportunity to design and promote products that foreground rapid access to diagnostics and treatment, including more affordable or modular options for price-sensitive individuals and SMEs. At the same time, higher claims frequency will require careful recalibration of pricing, underwriting, and reserving assumptions—supported by stronger claims triage, care navigation, and case management—in order to control costs while still delivering a clear speed and service advantage over the NHS.
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By GlobalData
