Vitality: ‘Why your health and life insurance premium won’t go down’
In a post-Covid world, it seems the cost of virtually everything is going up on a regular basis and a possible ‘return to normal’ is disappearing with every passing quarter.
The cost-of-living crisis has impacted everyone and permeated every corner of the UK economy, pushing prices up considerably in recent years.
While there are some areas of the economy where costs are starting to go down, albeit slowly, insurance premiums can’t be included in that list.
The industry remains as competitive as ever but spiking costs during the pandemic and a rise in demand have contributed to increasing premiums for UK policy holders.
Speaking during the latest episode of Morning Wire’s Boardroom Uncovered interview series Neville Koopowitz, the chief executive of health and life insurance giant Vitality, issued a warning to anyone still hoping his industry will prove to be an exception to the trend.
The latest episode also includes Koopowitz opening up about growing up in South Africa and living through the transition from Apartheid to democracy as well as talking about whether leadership sits comfortably with him.
The CEO talks about his approach to attempting to maintain a work-life balance, what it takes to be a good chief executive and his biggest successes and failures in his career.
Koopowitz is also honest about the link between encouraging policy holders to be healthier and Vitality’s bottom line.
Going private ‘helps alleviate pressure on NHS’
Koopowitz, who led Vitality’s launch in the UK a decade ago, said: “I don’t see a situation where they’re going to come down. I think we have had a reset and that’s for numerous reasons.
“Firstly, the underlying medical inflation has gone up. Post-Covid we’ve had these massive consumer price index inflation increases and then that has a knock on impact on provision of health care services. Think about a hospital, big electricity bills, big staffing bills.
“The cost of the provision of care went up and that’s a direct function of what your insurance premiums would be.
“But even above that, we had a definite shift in people actually valuing their private medical insurance.
“And one of the key fundamental changes that we actually saw was pre-Covid, private medical insurance was for elective surgery in hospitals, the ability for people to actually get the surgery quicker post-Covid, it’s a much more integrated system.
“People want private, primary care services like GP services, mental health services.
“So we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the utilisation of those services which is a good thing because it alleviates pressure on the NHS number one.
“And number two, people have now started to value their private medical insurance a lot more.”
Boardroom Uncovered
Filmed in the heart of Canada, Morning Wire’s Boardroom Uncovered interview series features the CEOs of the biggest and best-known companies operating in the UK.
Each episode focuses on the personality of the business leader; what makes them tick, their rise to the top and what makes them stay there.
Boardroom Uncovered seeks to reveal what it actually takes to run the largest companies in this country, the toll it takes and the sacrifices as well as the rewards.
Each CEO also gives their advice to those looking to follow in their footsteps.
Previous guests have included Sir Tim Martin, the founder of pub giant JD Wetherspoon, as well as the CEOs of Virgin, Trainline, B&Q and Naked Wines.