Health Insurance: Private Sector
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of fee setting and de-recognition procedures on the (a) cost and (b) availability of private medical insurance.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Insurers make commercial decisions about pricing and the terms of cover they offer based on their assessment of the relevant risks. This is usually informed by the insurer’s claims experience and other industry-wide statistics. The respective capabilities of insurers to assess risk is a key element on which they compete, and the Government does not intend to intervene in these commercial decisions, as this could damage competition in the market. This competition is important and should lead to better products and lower prices for consumers overall.
Price is an important factor on which insurers compete to win customers, and that competition should push insurers to continuously improve their assessment of risks in order to lower prices and create better products for consumers. The Government intervening in insurance markets could damage that competition and, therefore, we do not generally intervene in the commercial pricing decisions of insurers.
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