Employers urged to use private medical cover to top up NHS care

Companies should consider using private medical cover to top up NHS care as part of employee benefit packages, it has been claimed.

In an article for Moneymarketing.co.uk, Charlie MacEwan, corporate communications director at healthcare provider WPA, argued that firms looking to cut down on costs as they recover from the recession should look at the health insurance options open to them.

He says that employees often mistakenly see private healthcare as an alternative to the NHS, meaning they sometimes make unnecessary claims.

Instead, they should look at private medical cover as supplementing the care provided by the NHS.

One of the solutions to this could be the adoption of a cash plan policy, which are used to top up NHS care with things like car-parking, second opinions, GP fees, cancer drugs, emergency abroad cover and cosmetic surgery, says Mr MacEwan.

"Private healthcare has always supplemented the work of the NHS reducing the queues, giving NHS patients more attention and cleaning hospitals," he writes.

"Supplementing the NHS, which is common in the rest of Europe - 93 per cent of people in Holland have top-up schemes - means that the insured patient has a choice."

WPA launched a new NHS Supplementary Insurance plan in November last year.

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