Over the last 18 months, we’ve seen interest in Equipsme increase significantly. Businesses are looking for health benefit alternatives – and our ‘hybrid’ business health insurance is filling a gap in the market that’s only getting bigger.
When we started out, our sweet spot was businesses of up to around 250 employees. Now it’s much bigger businesses coming to us, looking for health benefits that can work for the whole of the workforce.
What’s changed? Well, a lot of different things at once.
NHS pressure
The NHS is still under incredible pressure - from a combination of funding challenges, an ageing population, and Covid backlogs. Waiting lists remain stubbornly high and money to fix it all doesn’t grow on trees.
The result is increasing demand from employees for employers to pick up some of the health slack.
Productivity issues
Workplaces are facing productivity challenges as well, linked to all sorts of factors, including cost-of-living and the NHS issues outlined above. Many firms may have ageing or unhealthy populations, with workers struggling to see their local NHS GP, which can result in cutting back on treats and luxuries like fresh food and gym memberships.
According to ONS figures from 2022, 185.6m days are lost to sickness absence every year. When the new stats come out in June I predict that this will be even higher!
Indeed, CIPD data from 2024 estimates a loss of 7.8 days a year per employee, while our own data, from our Return On Investment whitepaper with Fruitful Insights, equates the cost to an average of around £400 a day. That figure is based on a UK average salary and rolls together payroll loss, productivity loss, overtime costs and missed deadline impact.
It’s a big cost for any business to swallow, and little wonder firms are looking for ways to reduce their sickness-absence bills.
PMI costs
Meanwhile, Private Medical Insurance costs are continuing to go up - fuelled by increased demand, medical costs, and claims rates.
I’m hearing about renewal costs rising anywhere from 20% to 100% - especially due to things like big cancer claims. Some of these high increases are for a second or third year in a row and that’s simply unsustainable for most businesses.
So now not only are they looking for more or whole of workforce productivity solutions - but they’re looking for business health insurance that won’t break the budget.
