No-claims discounts act as deterrent for private medical policyholders
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Private medical insurers that offer no-claims bonuses have been accused of deterring people from claiming when they are ill, which could hinder their recovery.
Companies offering no-claims discounts include Aviva, PruHealth and Axa. Bupa offers discounts at renewal stage where premiums are adjusted according to the size of claims made in the previous year.
WPA corporate communications director Charlie MacEwan says: “Medical insurance is about helping people get better when they are ill. No-claims discounts encourage people not to claim, delaying their recovery. This could compound the illness and is fundamentally opposed to the reasons that people take out the insurance in the first place.”
Exeter Friendly Society chief executive Andy Chapman says: “If people need to claim, they should not have to worry about their premium going up. It is completely contrary to the reason they took out the insurance.”
PMI Partners managing director Ian Sawyer says no-claims discounts are acceptable so long as the premium increase is not too extreme.
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Readers' comments (2)
Lee Gerry | 22 Jul 2010 3:41 pm
Working on this basis all insurance policies should only offer 100% protection with out any exclusions… We live in a time of austerity. Providing customers with products and services that give them a greater say in the premium is far more important than only providing fully comprehensive products that would likely result in people going uninsured. An NCB allows a customer a discount on the book rates for good stewardship of smaller attritional claims; it doesn’t encourage customers to abstain from treatment altogether.
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Sean | 23 Jul 2010 8:30 am
Damned if they do damned if they dont. Why shouldnt these companies reward those who are healthier? Although it does beg the question as to whether the price being charged is too high in the first place for someone is who is unlikely to make a claim?
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