Medicash sees strong demand for corporate health plans

LIVERPOOL-based health cash plan provider Medicash has enjoyed a strong first quarter by selling half of all the policies sold in 2013.

The not-for-profit company said it sold 13,125 new policies in the first three months – its best start to the year on record.

Most of these were sold to companies rather than individuals, which Medicash says is a growing trend as household incomes continue to come under pressure from wage freezes and inflation. Employer paid policies account for around a third of 150,000 sold by Medicash.

In the year to December it sold 25,305 policies, up from 13,620 in 2012. But overall premiums increased by 3% to £20.7m. The pre-tax surplus was up to £2.62m from £1.96m.

Finance director Matt Allen said: “The group has aligned its growth strategy to market trends by focusing its efforts on growing its employer-paid policyholder base. Despite competitive pressures, we are pleased to report the continued growth in premiums written and policyholder numbers whilst improving the claims ratio.
 
“Whilst we expect the number of individual policyholders to decline due to continued pressure on household income and redundancies across the public sector, we expect the number of employer-paid policyholders to increase as the popularity of cash plans as an employee benefit increases.”

Medicash contributed £124,000 to charities last year, up from £111,000 in 2012.